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Domesticated Trout. 



How to Breed aitcl Grow Them. 



BY , 

LIVINGSTON STONE, A. M., 

DEPUTY U. S. FISH COMMISSIONER, PROPRIETOR OF COLD SPRING TROUT PONDS, 

SECRETARY OF AMERICAN FISH CULTURISTS' ASSOCIATION, AND 

EDITOR OF FISH CULTURISTS' DEPARTMENT OF 

"new YORK CITIZEN." 



" Purpurisque Salare stellatus tergora guttis." 
f Ausoiiius, Idyl Tenth. 

"Make assurance double sure." 

Macbeth, Act iv. Scene i. 



K 



v 




BOSTON : 
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, 

Late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co. 
1872. 



Q 

.1 



I&7 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, 

BY LIVINGSTON STONE, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 
Cambridge. 



TO 



THEODORE LYMAN, 

THE LEADING SPIRIT IN THE NEW FISH RESTORATION MOVEMENT 
IN NEW ENGLAND, 

THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 



THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 




PART I. 

TROUT-BREEDING WORKS. 

CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Page 
Trout can be raised successfully. — Qualities required for 
the Best Success. — The Principle of Security, — em- 
phasized because, i. It will insure Success ; 2. Losses 
occur on so large a Scale ; 3. Sources of Danger un- 
seen. — Suitable Water, Importance of. Precautions : 
I. Beware of Insufficient Water ; 2. Of Freshets; 3. Of 
Water that heats in Summer ; 4. Of Water intrinsically 
Unfavorable to Trout. — Spring and Brook Water com- 
pared 3-17 

CHAPTER II. 

PONDS. 

A Beginner's Inquiries. — Directions about the Construc- 
tion of Ponds : i. Exercise Forethought in locating 
Ponds ; 2. Excavate the Ponds rather than dam up the 
Stream ; 3. Build compactly ; 4. Build small Ponds for 
Business ; 5. Have a Fall at the Head of each Pond ; 
6. Do not build Ponds too near the Spring ; 7. Build 
Keeper's House very near the Ponds ; 8. Make Ponds 



VI CONTENTS. 

very Secure ; 9. Shape of the Ponds ; 10. Be able to 
draw off the Water; 11. Beware of Hiding-Places ; 
12, Number of Ponds; 13. Protections for Ponds; 
14. Spawning Beds. — Ainsworth's Spawning Races. 
— Collins's Roller Spawning Box ; 15, Inlets and Out- 
lets; 16 Screens 18-39 



CHAPTER III. 

BUILDINGS. 

Buildings required. — Meat Room. — Store-Room and Car- 
penter's Shop. — Office. — Ice-House. — Other Struc- 
tures. — Hatching House. — Size of Hatching House ; 
Location ; Shape ; No Fire required ; Skylights ; Wa- 
terproof Partitions 40-46 



CHAPTER IV. 

HATCHING APPARATUS. 

Enumeration of Hatching Apparatus : i. Supply Reser- 
voir ; 2. Hatching- Room Aqueduct, Effect of Air on 
Temperature of Water ; 3. Filtering Arrangements : 
Nature of Sfediment, Filtering Tanks and Screens, 
Flannel for Filters, Cleaning the Filters ; 4. The Dis- 
tributing Spout, Temporary Aqueduct, Gravel Filter ; 
5- Hatching Compartments or Hatching Apparatus 
proper, Responsibility of. — Materials. — Glass Grilles 
vs. Charcoal Troughs. — Expense of Carbonized Wood 
compared with Gl ass Grilles. — Discovery of C arbonized 
Wood for Hatching. — Wood lined with Glass inade- 
quate. — Placing the Hatching Troughs ; Dimensions ; 
Compartments ; Elevation ; Inclination. — Screens. — 
Trap-Box. — Laying the Gravel ; Size of Gravel ; Prep- 
aration of; Depth. — The Covers. — Most Embryos 
develop in the Dark. — Covers a Protection from Ene- 
mies. — Glass Grilles 47-67 



CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTER V. 
THE NURSERY. 

Introduction. — The Water. — Methods of Rearing. — 
Ponds vs. Rearing-Boxes. — Rearing-Boxes ; Essential 
Points of: i. A Fall of Water ; 2. A Current; 3. Pro- 
tection against Suction ; 4. Security from Overflow ; 
5. Absence of fixed Hiding-Places ; 6. Compactness ; 
7. Protection against Outside Enemies ; 8. Perfectly 
Tight Joints ; 9. Protection against Fungus. — Maxi- 
mum and Minimum Supply of Water. — Arrangement 
of Rearing-Boxes. — Directions for Ponds . .68-78 



PART II. 

PROCESSES IN TROUT BREEDING. 

CHAPTER I. 

TAKING THE EGGS. 

Introduction. — Preparations for the Spawning Season. — 
The Spawning Season. — Appearance of the Two Sexes. 

— The First Fish up. — Method of Capturing. — Hold- 
ing the Fish. — The Writer's Method. — Directions 
about Handling. — Russian Method. — Russian vs. 
American Theory. — How to tell Ripe Fish. — How 
to get a Good Impregnation. — Whether to take Milt 
or Eggs first. — Process of Impregnation. — Explana- 
tion. — Directions about Impregnating Eggs: i. Use 
Eggs that flow easily, and no others ; 2. Use Milt that 
is just right, and no other ; 3. Different Stages of Ripe- 
ness ; 4. Avoid too Cold Water ; 5. Make Quick Work ; 
6. Stir well while Stripping ; 7. Allow ample Time to 
separate ; 8. Rinse thoroughly ; 9. Practise for Dex- 
terity. — Closing Notes. — Time of Spawning. — Age. 

— Number of Eggs. — Effect of the Weather. — 
Best Days for Spawning. — Spawning in the Pond. 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

— The Spawning Pans. — Hybrids, — Placing the 
Spawn 81-111 

I 

CHAPTER II. 

HATCHING THE EGGS. 

Kind of Labor required. — Dangers: i. Fungus; 2. Sedi- 
ment ; 3. Living Enemies ; 4. Byssus, — Examination 
of the Eggs. — Instruments for Picking out Eggs. — 
How to tell Dead Eggs. — Method of Procedure. — Es- 
timating Percentage of Impregnation. — Time required 
for Hatching. — Progress of the Eggs. — How to tell 
Eggs that will produce Good Fish. — Transportation. 

— Packing. — Modus Operandi . . . . 112 -138 

CHAPTER III. 

CARE OF ALEVINS. 

Hatching of the First Trout. — Duration of Yolk-Sac Pe- 
riod ; Progress of. — Instinct to hide. — New Instinct. 

— Indifference to Cold. — Alevins easily Transported. 

— The Black Crook 139-148 

CHAPTER IV. 

REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 

Section I. — Progress of Young Fry, and General Direc- 
tions. — When to begin to feed. — Method of Feeding. 

— Bright Prospects. — The Young Fry dying. — How 

to save them. — Further Progress . . . 149-165 
Section II. — What to do to make the Young Fry live : 
I. Have healthy, well-fed Breeders ; Large Eggs how 
produced ; 2. Develop strong and healthy Embryos in 
Egg ; 3. Provide Suitable Place for Young Fry. — Points 
to be secured : a. No Possibility of Water being cut off; 
b. New, unused Water essential ; c. Shade necessary ; 
d. Must not be crowded ; e. Take good Care of Fish. — 
Scepticism about raising Young Fry. — Discussion. — 



CONTENTS. IX 

Causes of Death external and removable. — Maxims. 

— Good Care rewarded ..... 165-176 
Section III. — Diseases of Trout Fry. — Untrodden Field. 

— Diseases enumerated : i. Fungus on the Egg ; 2. Par- 
tial Suffocation of the Embryo; 3. Strangulation of the 
Embryo; Seth Green's Dropsy, or Blue Swelling ; 5. De- 
formity at Birth ; 6. Fungus on the Surface of the Body ; 
7. Constitutional Weakness ; 8. Emaciation ; 9. Star- 
vation ; ID. Ulcers on the Head ; ii Animal Parasites ; 
12. Fin Disease ; 13. Black Ophthalmia ; 14. Irritation 
of the Optic Nerve ; 15. Inflammation of the Gills ; 
16. Fatty Degeneration of the Vitals ; 17. Spotted Rash; 
18. Strangulation by Food ; 19. Cannibalism, Nib- 
bling; 20. Overheating; 21. Suffocation.— Cautions 176-192 

Section IV. — Filling Orders for Young Fry. — Prepara- 
tions. — Counting. — Precautions in Travelling . 192- 196 

CHAPTER V. 

GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 

Section I. — Trout in general. — Scientific Description of 
the Salmo Fontinalis (Storer). — Trout the favorite 
among Fishes. — Suited to Domestication. — Sight. — 
Hearing. — Smell. — Habitat. — Peculiarities. — Natu- 
ral Food. — Age. — Weight 197 -210 

Section II. — Commissary Department. — The right Kind 
of Food. — Other Kinds of Food. — Care and Prepara- 
tion of the Meat. — Feeding. — Daily Rations . 210-218 

Section III. — How to secure the Large Trout against 
Loss. — Guard -against : i. Freshets ; 2. Overstocking; 

3. Heated Water; 4. Careless Handling; 5. Can- 
nibalism ; 6. Fouled Water ; 7. Natural Enemies ; 8. 
Poachers. — Safeguards at Cold Spring Trout Ponds. 

— Jack 218-234 

Section IV. — How to grow Trout to a very Large Size 

and rapidly. — Directions : i. Give them Plenty of Wa- 
ter ; 2. Plenty of Food ; 3. Warm Water (relatively) ; 

4. Range; 5. Space 234-236 



X CONTENTS. 

Section V. — Daily Care of the Large Trout. — Little La- 
bor required. — Mortality slight .... 236, 237 
Section VI. — Marketing the Trout . . . 238 - 240 

CHAPTER VI. 

CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 

Section I. — Work in general of a Trout-Breeding Estab- 
lishment : In Summer ; Fall ; Winter ; Spring. — The 
Pecuniary View of Trout-Growing. — Current Expenses. 
— Large Margins of Profit. — Estimates. — Risk. — 
Sale of Spawn. — Young Stock. — Prices Current 241 -251 

Section II. — Recapitulation. — Summary of Directions 
and Precautions in Regard to Water, Ponds, Nursery, 
Eggs, Young Fry, and Large Trout . . . 251-254 

APPENDIX. 

I. A New Discovery, — Cure for Fungus . . 257-261 
II. Journeys of Live Fish and Eggs . . . 262 - 266 

III. Odds and Ends 267-285 

IV. Patent Carbonized Hatching Troughs . . 286-288 
V. Brief Sketch of Operations at the Cold Spring Trout 

Ponds 289-294 

VI. Salmon-Breeding Establishment on the Mirimi- 

chi 295-302 

VII. Experiments with Trout Eggs and Trout . 303-307 
VIII. The Progress of Development of a Salmo Egg 
{Coregomis palcea). (Vogt.) Translated from the 
French by Frances W. Webber . . . 308 -315 

IX. Perch Hatching 316-318 

X. Organization of the American Fish Culturists* As- 
sociation 319-321 

XL Specimens of Salmonidse for Professor Agassiz 322-324 

XII. Marking Salmon (Buckland) . . . 325-327 

XIII. Are the Fish in the Sea diminishing? (Bertram.) 328-335 

XIV. Books on Fish Culture .... 336-342 



DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



PART I. 

TROUT-BREEDING WORKS. 



DOMESTICATED TROUT.* 



CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTION. 

WHEN the writer of the following pages asked 
Seth Green, in 1866, "how many of those 
who engaged in trout breeding would succeed," he 
answered, with his well-known quickness of manner, 
" One in a million." There was so much wanting, at 

* How fully the word "domesticated" will finally apply to 
trout that are bred and grown artificially, time alone can decide. 
It is still a very doubtful question whether they will ever be- 
come so accustomed and attached to the habitations of man that 
they will prefer to remain around his homes and under his pro- 
tection, like dogs and fowls, and so become in the strictest 
sense domestic creatures. 

Still, this result is not impossible, perhaps not improbable. 
Cattle and horses become as wild as buffaloes and deer 
when left to run wild long enough. Artificial influences have 
given these creatures their domestic habits. Why may not a 
sufficiently long course of similar influences create a similar 
change in the habits of trout ? 

Trout are not naturally averse to man in their primitive wildness, 
before they have learned to fear him. I have seen wild trout in the 
uninhabited forests of New Brunswick as little disposed to avoid 
man as sheep in a pasture. Why, then, may we not, by taking 
away their fear of man through domestication, restore that 



4 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

that time, in the knowledge required to insure suc- 
cess, that Mr. Green's reply was hardly an exaggera- 
tion. Since that time, however, the whole aspect of 
the matter has been changed, and the care and study 
bestowed on the subject have evolved a set of rules 
and principles, the careful observance of which will 
render a degree of success almost certain. I think it 
may safely be said that the time has come when trout 
can be hatched, reared, and brought to maturity in 
great numbers and with comparatively little loss ; and 
I think it is also safe to say that success in raising 
the fish will of necessity be accompanied by pecuniary 
success while the present relations exist between the 
prices of trout and the cost of the food on which they 
are reared. 

primitive state of feeling towards him, which is free from aver- 
sion ? 

Again, I have at my ponds trout that were hatched from 
parents that were themselves hatched there artificially. Now, it 
may have been wholly a fancy, but there has seemed to me to be 
a difference between these fish and the offspring of wild parents 
in respect to shyness, and that the artificially hatched progeny 
of domesticated parents were less shy than the artificially 
hatched offspring of wild parents. If this is so, and the trout 
show an improvement in one generation, what may we not ex- 
pect of fish in which domestication has been hereditary for many 
generations ? 

The time may come when continued domestication, together 
with the overcoming of their fear of man, will so modify the 
present action of their instincts, that, when pains are taken with 
the domesticated trout, they will prefei' to seek the shelter and 
food which they find around the homes of men to the precarious 
chances of a wild and roaming life. This may not be probable, 
but I do not think it is impossible. 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

I do not wish to be understood, however, in saying 
that following certain rules will insure success, that a 
mechanical adherence to rules will make any one 
succeed. On the contrary, to raise trout successfully 
demands a vast deal more than that. It requires not 
only the ordinary force, foresight, and tenacity of pur- 
pose requisite to success in any business, but also, in 
an unusual degree, constant vigilance and caution, and 
that peculiar blending of insight, skill, and precision 
which makes a successful sportsman, and which seems 
to be a gift, rather than an acquirement. 

I do not say that without these qualities a degree of 
success may not be obtained, but for the best success 
these traits are indispensable. 

You can see at once why this is so. In the first 
place, the trout breeder has to deal with the most 
elusory, the most treacherous and capricious thing in 
the world, namely, running water. To make running 
water go as you would have it and tvhere you would 
have it, from one year's end to another, through all 
the vicissitudes of weather of the four seasons, in- 
cluding the extremes of frost and heat, freshet and 
drought, is a task the difficulty of which only those 
know who have tried it. Then it must be remem- 
bered that your charge is a wild creature, which has 
never been domesticated or taught domestic habits, and 
every one knows the vast difference in the difficulty 
of the work between the rearing of wild and domesti- 
cated creatures. 

Furthermore, the trout lives in an element not yours, 
but foreign to you, and one which you can never by any 



6 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

possibility learn the nature of by living in it yourself; 
and lastly, in the earlier stages of its growth the de- 
velopments and functions of the trout and the progress 
of its diseases are almost or wholly microscopic, — 
all of which considerations call for a peculiar watchful- 
ness and skill. 

But though so much is required for great success, it 
is also true that the knowledge which has now been 
gained of the art will enable most persons to raise 
trout with very gratifying results, and almost any one 
in a favorable locality can raise trout enough to feel 
rewarded for his pains. 

The Principle of Security. 

Before taking up the various branches and pro- 
cesses of trout raising, I beg to mention one prin- 
ciple, the most important, in the writer's opinion, of 
any in the whole prosecution of the enterprise, and 
one which, on account of its importance, will be im- 
pressed upon the reader at every favorable opportu- 
nity throughout this little treatise. This is the prin- 
ciple of insuring the utmost degree of security in every 
department of your work. 

The emphasis with v/hich this principle of security 
is urged upon the trout culturist will be understood 
when the following points are considered. 

I. All you have to do to be successful in trout 
raising, or to make your fortune from it, if you have 
a good place, is to keep your fish alive and growing. 
The hundred thousand trout you hatch this spring, 
if you keep them thirty months, will bring you thirty 



INTRODUCTION. J 

thousand dollars, if you get only thirty cents apiece 
for them ; and they will be poor trout if they do not 
bring that. 

This calculation is very simple, but sound. The fact 
is, that trout are produced in the first instance in such 
enormous quantities, and at so little cost, they can be 
raised with so little outlay of money, and they bring, 
when matured, such a high price in the market, that all 
you have to do is to keep the fish alive and growing, 
and your success will be all you can wish. The prize 
is already in your hand. All you are required to do 
is to hold it. Hence the importance of making what 
you have secure. It is important, because that alo?ie 
will bring you almost incredible returns ; and if secu- 
rity alone will make you successful, it must be impor- 
tant. 

2. The utmost degree of security is demanded, be- 
cause, when losses do occur, it is generally on so large 
a scale. The peculiar nature of the things you deal 
with, namely, fish and running water, and the magnitude 
of the numbers you operate with, are such that there is 
hardly an occupation in the world where insecurity 
is followed by such wholesale loss. For instance, the 
stream that supplies fifty thousand fry is cut off a few 
hours, we will suppose, in a hot night in summer, by 
an accident. In the. morning fifty thousand trout are 
dead. It is not the loss of a few, as the farmers in 
the provinces lose their sheep by the attack of the 
black bear, or the spring lambs are killed by foxes, 
but it is the whole fifty thousand. As an illustration 
of this, a visitor, one July evening, about seven o'clock, 



8 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

accidentally moved a small gate which regulated the 
supply of twelve thousand fine, healthy trout fry 
belonging to the writer, and at half past ten the 
same evening every fish was dead on its back. The 
gate was not moved over an inch ; the consequence 
was the death of twelve thousand beautiful young 
trout. 

For instance, again, a freshet that you have not 
guarded ' against comes down unexpectedly, - and 
sweeps over your ponds ; when the waters subside, you 
will not have lost one or two of your fish, but, it is 
very likely, three fourths of them. Or a screen inse- 
curely placed may let them all go ; or an epidemic, 
bred by foul meat, may take off half your brood before 
you can check it. 

A score of instances within the writer's knowledge 
might be mentioned, where actual losses of great mag- 
nitude have occurred in each one of these ways, when 
the only cause was insecurity. Thus it is seen that 
losses, when they do occur, are frequently so disastrous 
that no degree of security in guarding against them 
seems excessive. As in business, so in trout raising, 
the magnitude of the risk calls for a corresponding 
degree of security. 

3. The utmost security is also necessary in trout 
raising, because the dangers are so incessant and so 
constantly present. Plant your corn in the field, or 
turn your sheep out to pasture, and they are tolerably 
safe ; their dangers come seldom, and their enemies 
are few , but hatch your trout in the water, and not 
a moment, by day or by night, are they free from 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

danger, and there is not a moment when they are 
not surrounded by mortal enemies. 

Frogs, lizards, land and water snakes, water-beetles, 
the caddis-worms, land-rats and water-rats, mice, 
minks, weasels, kingfishers, herons of several kinds, and 
even cats, are on the alert for them all the time, and, 
after they have once found them, will visit them every 
day or night as long as they last. The unprotected 
trout are like a flock of sheep in the haunts of pari- 
thers and wolves on the Rocky Mountains, and have 
about as much chance of surviving. 

Their danger is incessant. It is not once a week 
or once a month that their enemies come for them, 
but every day and every night of their lives, if they 
are unprotected ; and every week the number of crea- 
tures that feed on them will increase. It is surprising 
how fast kingfishers, . herons, frogs, and snakes will 
multiply around a well-filled and unprotected trout 
pond. Furthermore, there is the constant danger 
from the water itself which sustains them, either of 
its overflowing, or running short, or of getting too 
warm, or becoming unwholesome, — all which accidents 
are likely to happen and to be attended with fatal re- 
sults. The constant presence of these dangers ren- 
ders it doubly important to make security your first 
thought in raising trout. 

4. This is not all ; the sources of danger to which 
your fish are exposed are of the invisible, intangible 
kind, that keep out of your sight and out of your 
reach, and for that very reason security becomes ten- 
fold more needful. Many of their dangers come when 
I* 



10. DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

they are least expected ; they do their work unseen, 
often in the dark, and leave no trace of their presence. 

For example, one or two of the fine threads in the 
screen of your hatching trough may be worn through, 
or there may be some small undiscovered crevice in 
a corner of your nursery, and day after day, for weeks, 
the little creatures may be slipping through and escap- 
ing, and an immense loss occur before you even sus- 
pect the cause of the mysterious waste. 

Or the cover of your hatching trough, although to 
all appearances tight, may be loose enough to admit 
a mouse, and every night for a month he and his 
companions may come into the trough, and feed on 
your alevin trout in the corners, where they swarm by 
thousands ; and yet, when morning comes, not a sign 
or a trace may you discover to show that anything 
has gone wrong, except that your fish are daily dimin- 
ishing. Or it may happen that a muskrat, out of sight 
under the earth, is boring a hole that will let your 
fish out, when you think they are perfectly secure; 
or a mink, wholly unexpected, may have quartered 
himself in one of your ponds ; or the invisible fungus 
may, without your knowledge, be gathering in the gills 
of your young fry, to their certain future destruction. 
Such is the occult character of many of the dangers 
which threaten the lives of your trout, and hence the 
need of extreme security in raising them is such that 
it can hardly be overestimated. Labor, patience, and 
constant care are required to be successful ; but the 
one consideration which ranks above all others is to 
guard them from every species of insecurity. 



introduction. 1 1 

Selecting the Water. 

The first thing to do, in getting ready to raise trout, 
is to find suitable water. This is a very important 
part of your preparations, for it is the element that 
your trout are to spend their lives in ; and if there is 
anything wrong about the water, it will sooner or later 
show itself in fatal results. 

In looking for suitable water, the following precau- 
tions should in no instance be overlooked. 

I. Be sure that there will always be water e?iough 
for your purposes. To decide upon this, you must be 
guided by the amount of water flowing in the hottest 
week of the dryest time in the summer. 

This is your guide : the stream or spring is worth 
no more than what it will do at its very warmest and 
lowest time. It seems like reflecting on the reader's 
intelligence to insist on this precaution, yet thousands 
and thousands of fish have been lost by neglecting it.* 

Great care ought to be exercised to guard against 
being misled by deceptive appearances. 

When you see a brook sweeping along in the spring 
at its flood height, it is extremely difficult to realize 
that the swollen stream can become, as it often does, 
a dry or nearly dry channel. Therefore, when you 
select your brook, either see it yourself in its dryest 
state, or take the testimony of some perfectly reliable 

* I once received a letter from a man who wanted to know 
" what kind of fish he could raise in a brook which was quite 
large eight months in the year, and dried up wholly during the 
other four." 



12 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

person who has seen it thus ; and if from what you 
see or hear you are led to believe that it is possible for 
the supply of water to become insufficient, have noth- 
ing to do with it. Overcome all temptations to try it, 
and look elsewhere. 

2. Be sure that no freshets which can carry away or 
overflow your works are possible. In deciding upon 
the character of your stream, in this respect allowance 
should be also made, as in the former case, for decep- 
tive appearances, though in just the opposite direction. 
It is so very difficult to believe that the harmless 
little rivulet of August can become a resistless torrent 
in October, that many persons are apt to be misled by 
the deceptive appearance, and will actually go to work 
on a stream liable to freshets, and will build ponds, 
and will stock them, at great expense, with no guar- 
anty whatever that the next fall or spring flood will 
not, as it generally proves, sweep everything away. 
Trust to no probabilities, but make su7'e that no fresh- 
ets can come that can do you damage, or, at least, that 
no such freshet ever has come. If this is not made 
sure of, a single night will destroy the work of years. 

Brooks subject to moderate freshets that can be 
controlled are not necessarily objectionable ; they need 
not be given up, if the expense of carrying ofl" the sur- 
plus water is not too great ; but a brook where the 
freshets cannot be wholly guarded against is a delusion 
and a snare, and ought to be utterly avoided. 

3. Be sure that the water does not heat up in the 
summer to an unwholesome point. Many brooks 
which have the appearance of being perfect trout 



INTRODUCTION. 1 3 

Streams, are worthless from becoming too warm in the 
summer. Here, also, the test should be the hottest 
day of the dryest time. For it should be remembered 
that one day of freshet, drought, or intense heat may 
do as much mischief, in taking away your trout, as six 
months of the same might do. 

The waters otherwise suitable, which are most to be 
dreaded on account of their excessive heat, are outlets 
of ponds or lakes, and such as are at the fish preserves 
distant from their sources. These waters, though peren- 
nial and of even flow, and fed by springs, may yet, 
from too much exposure to the sun or air, be wholly 
unfit to keep trout alive, by reason of their temperature 
rising too high. 

This objection is not always so imperative as the 
other two just mentioned, because there are two ways 
of obviating it to some extent, viz. : — i. By putting 
ice in the stream. 2. By taking the water from near 
its source, through a pipe under ground. The first 
remedy often involves so much risk, as well as 
expense and necessity of constant vigilance in hot 
weather, that it had better not be contemplated, 
except in cases of great counterbalancing advantages. 
The latter remedy, however, when it will pay, is usually 
practicable, and will do if it can be made safe. But, 
at all events, make sure either that the water will keep 
cool of itself, or that you can and will keep it cool 
enough by one method or another. 

Under this head it may be suggested that tlie quan- 
tity and force of current and vigor * of the water have 

* I cannot exactly define the word " vigor " in its present ap- 



14 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

much to do with the degree of temperature at which 
trout will live. For instance, when water does not pos- 
sess much vigor, is deficient in quantity, and sluggish, 
it will not support trout life in so high a temperature as 
when it is vigorous, plentiful, and rapid. I think it is 
safe to say that sluggish flat water at 70° is dangerous, 
if not fatal, to trout ; while they will live in vigorous 
rapid water which occasionally runs to 80°. I have 
found 85° to be fatal to them in all kinds of water. 

4. Be sure that the water you select is intrinsically 
favorable to trout. Be very careful about using any 
brook or spring which can possibly receive the dis- 
charge of a tannery or mill, or drainage discharging 
any poisonous substance. The presence of some lime 
in the water naturally is not necessarily an objection ; 
for trout do live in limestone regions, and in water 
having some lime in it. So of iron ; but too much of 
either in the water will kill them. The best test of 
this point that you can possibly get is that the 
stream is a natural trout brook. On the other hand, if 
it is not a natural trout brook, or has not been one, be 
very shy of it ; there is some good cause why trout 
do not inhabit it, and the cause is probably to be 
found in the unsuitableness of the water. 

It is no objection to a stream where trout are raised 
that it is occasionally turbid, or even muddy. Such 

plication, nor can I find a better word to give my meaning. In 
drinking water, we distinguish between that which is flat and 
that which is sparkling. What we call sparkling water, when 
we drink it, I mean by vigorous water in a trout brook. There 
are very great differences in this respect, as all are aware. 



INTRODUCTION. 1 5 

water, though injurious to eggs, is wholesome and 
beneficial to the fully formed fish of all ages. 

It is always a good precaution, where a stream is used 
which has no trout in it naturally, to put in a few and 
keep them there the year round, and see how it suits 
them, before adopting it fully as a trout-breeding water. 

There is some conflict of opinion about the compar- 
ative value of spring and brook water for raising trout. 
As a rule, I think generally, all things considered, that 
spring-water is best for hatching, and brook-water is 
the best for raising trout. It is said that brook-water 
is more natural for hatching ; that it hatches the trout 
out at a better time, namely, in the spring, and that 
the young fry, when they do come out, are uncommonly 
lively. It is not certain, however, that brook-water is 
more natural than spring- water for hatching, for in many 
brooks, and in most of those with which I am acquaint- 
ed, half the fish lay their eggs in spring-holes, or so near 
the spring-sources of the stream that it is practically 
spring-water that they are hatched in. Then, again, it 
is a doubtful advantage, if any, to have them hatch late ; 
and lastly, they are not sure, by any means, to make 
better trout for being unusually lively in the earlier 
days of their infancy. 

On the other hand, spring-water possesses, for hatch- 
ing, the vast advantage over brook-water of being safer. 

I think that in hatching, except in very rare instan- 
ces, brook-water can have no advantages which can 
begin to offset this great counterbalancing advantage 
of safety. You cannot be too sure of the water which 
flows over your eggs. In most brooks you cannot be 



l6 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

sure that there will not be trouble in the course of 
the winter from a stoppage of water, an overflow, 
sediment, or injury to the water above. At any rate, 
with a brook, your risk, on account of these dangers, 
is vastly increased. But with a spring there is an even 
flow, a steady temperature, very little danger of stop- 
page of the water or injury to it, and the whole thing 
is compact and well in hand. 

These considerations will, in the long run, give the 
spring-water for hatching purposes a very decided ad- 
vantage over brook-water. 

Brook-water, again, is best to raise trout in. Spring- 
water, just emerging from the darkness of the interior 
of the earth, is cold, wholly free from animal and vege- 
table life, and deficient in that peculiar vitality which 
its flow through the open air and sunshine imparts to it. 
Trout will not grow fast, will remain small, and will 
develop small ova, in such water. 

Brook-water, on the contrary, possessing the qualities 
which spring-water lacks, is much more nutritious, if I 
may use the word, will grow trout rapidly, will give 
them a good size, and will develop large eggs in the 
fish. For these reasons it is, if safe, better than spring- 
water for raising trout. 

It should be mentioned here, however, that cold wa- 
ter makes a hardier and firmer-fleshed fish, and is less 
favorable to disease. It is consequently better, some- 
times, when there is any tendency to disease, to keep 
the very young fry in the spring-water until they have 
acquired some firmness of bone and flesh. 

The best water advantages of all are perhaps found 



INTRODUCTION. 1/ 

where both spring and safe brook water are at one's 
command, and either or both can be employed at 
pleasure.* The brook-water can then be used, if de- 
sired, while it is safe, and a mixture of spring and 
brook can be so graduated as to make the eggs hatch 
at any desired time between the minimum and' maxi- 
mum periods of incubation. In the long run, however, 
I think experience will prove that a large spring 
of even temperature and even flow is about as good 
as anything for hatching the eggs. 

* This is the case at the Mirimichi Salmon-Breedinar Works. 



CHAPTER II. 
PONDS. 

THE first questions you will ask yourself, when 
you have decided that you have suitable water 
for your purposes, are, where shall the ponds be located, 
at what points on the stream shall the ponds be built, 
and how shall they be constructed ? 

In answering these inquiries, a great variety of con- 
siderations of a special character will come in, such 
as the nature of the soil, the lay of the land, and your 
personal tastes, which you can best settle for 3^ourself 
without help ; but there are other considerations of a 
general character which should be noticed here, and 
among them are the following. 

I. The water you have is to be used for three dis- 
tinct purposes, — for the hatching apparatus, for the 
■nursery, and for the ponds of the mature trout, — and 
it should be borne in mind that the water which may 
be good for one of these may not be good for another. 

For instance, the cold, barren watei*^ just emerging 
from the earth, though just the thing for hatching 
eggs, is, from its cold and unnutritious character, poor 
water to fatten mature fish in ; on the other hand, 
brook- water, full of animal life, which is just the thing 
on that account for the mature trout, may, from its 



PONDS. 19 

liability to sediment, or intractable character, or other 
causes, be extremely unsuitable for hatching. In 
locating your ponds, then, these three departments 
should be kept distinct in the mind ; and it should be 
remembered that the works belonging to each should 
be so built in reference to their distinctive require- 
ments, and also with reference to each other, that, 
when they are finished, each will have its proper water 
advantages, the precedence, when there is choice of 
water, being always given to the first two named, 
the hatching apparatus and the nursery. Nature has 
done so much in some trout-pond localities that very 
little foresight is required in this respect ; but in many, 
especially where the water has to be used over once 
or twice, the exercise of considerable forethought will 
be well repaid. 

2. Get your ponds, whenever you can without great 
inconvenience, either wholly or partly by excavating 
the earth, rather than by damming up the stream. 
This is for safety ; with the bulk of the water above 
the level of the adjacent land, you are never secure. 
I never saw a trout-pond dam in my life that I con- 
sidered absolutely safe. 

Recollect that muskrats, frost, and decay are the 
active enemies of your pond walls, and their work is 
correspondingly mischievous in the degree that the 
ponds are raised above the level of the surrounding 
land. As I said, I never saw a trout-pond dam that 
was safe to hold trout in ; but I have seen more un- 
safe ones than I can think of, that sooner or later led 
to disastrous losses by breaking away and letting out 



20 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

the fish. Excavated ponds are the only safe ones. 
Let your rule be, when possible, to excavate rather 
than dam up. 

3. Build your ponds as compactly as possible. This 
might be said of your whole establishment also. Have 
all your ponds and works as near together as other 
more important considerations will allow. In rainy 
weather, and deep snows, and times of danger, you 
will appreciate this. 

4. Build all your ponds small that mean business. 
Never break over this rule. Make your ponds for 
sport as large as you please, and I should say the 
larger the better ; but when you mean business, build 
small. The greatest nuisance in the world, in a trout- 
breeding establishment, is a large pond, where the 
trout are out of control, and do as they please, and go 
as they please, wholly regardless of your convenience. 
This rule should always be observed, namely, never 
to let a trout escape to any place where you cannot get 
at it, observe it, and capture it at a moment's notice. 

It is just as ridiculous, in the present stage of trout- 
breeding at least, to turn out your trout in a large 
pond, where they can get away from you, as it is to 
turn out your sheep or cattle in an unfenced moun- 
tain-pasture, where you will never hear from them 
again unless you fit out a regular hunting expedition 
to look them up. In course of time, when trout 
become as plentiful as the cattle and horses in South 
American pampas, this will do, perhaps ; but now, when 
trout are as scarce as they are, and worth a dollar a 
pound, you want to have them where they cannot 



PONDS. 21 

possibly get away from you, or even permanently out of 
your sight ; consequently, your ponds should be built 
small. . 

5. Have a fall, and as much of one as you can, 
at the head of each pond ; this is not essential, but 
very desirable, as then the water comes full of air and 
life directly on your fish, which is worth a great deal. 
You can keep more fish in the pond by it, they will 
be healthier, and will grow better. 

6. I think it is a good plan to locate your ponds far 
enough from the fountain-head of the stream for the 
water, by running through the air and sunlight, to have 
changed its character from cold barren spring-water 
to warmer and more nutritious brook-water. It will 
soon acquire this brook character, especially if it is 
spread out over considerable surface. Indeed, a pond 
having a large surface exposed to the sun, built directly 
over the spring, answers very well ; but trout will not 
grow fast or fatten easily in a deep, small spring-hole 
or spring-water pond, not much exposed to the sun. 
Do not infer from this that^trout need to be in the 
sun ; it is not the trout, but the water that the trout 
live in, that requires the sunlight. Brook-water which 
has a good deal of sunlight in it is better for ponds 
than spring-water with none. 

7. If your dwelling-house for yourself or keeper is 
built, then try to locate your ponds as near to the 
house as possible, within sight at least. If your house 
is not built, then build it very near your ponds. This 
I consider an important item, as experience is sure to 
teach. 



22 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

You are never entirely safe from poachers, it is true, 
but your security is much greater for living near 
your ponds. Herons, kingfishers, minks, and other 
destructive animals, are also less likely to frequent 
your ponds if your house is near. 

Then, besides the general advantages of always 
being near, and having your ponds in sight, you will 
many times, when a sudden shower comes up, or in 
some other case of need, go to the ponds, when, if you 
lived farther off, you would, perhaps, not think it worth 
the while. In the course of time the lack of this 
advantage will surely show itself in your record of 
losses. 

8. You cannot exercise too much caution in making 
your ponds secure. To this end, I would recommend 
that every pond and every aqueduct on your place be 
built of two-inch plank. Had I followed this rule 
when I began five years ago, I should have saved 
thousands and thousands of fish. I have had all 
sorts of ponds and dams, and have had them built by 
experienced workmen, and warranted to stand twenty 
years ; but not a single pond has held, out of twenty- 
three that I have built, except my plank ponds. Some 
of them have stood for five years to perfection. Mean- 
while, there has been no end of vexation, annual ex- 
pense, and loss, caused by the other ponds breaking 
away ; and if I began over again, I would build every- 
thing from beginning to end, that the water flowed 
through, of two-inch plank. Stone, concrete, cement, 
and similar substances, may answer as well, perhaps, for 
single ponds \ but for a material to be used through- 



PONDS. 23 

out I prefer plank,' because it can always be de- 
pended upon, repairs can be easily made, a screen 
can be readily put in anywhere, a tight joint can always 
be formed without trouble, tighter and more convenient 
connections can be made with the streams, and, on 
the whole, it stands the test of time and weather, and 
of both the routine and emergencies of experience, bet- 
ter than anything I know of* 

If you object to the want of durability of wood and 
its unsuitableness for fish, char the plank an eighth of 
an inch deep all round, and then you have both a dura- 
ble and a suitable material. 

I do not, however, insist upon the necessity of using 
plank, if you think you have something better. I 
only give the lessons of my own experience ; but, what- 
ever you use, be sure that it is safe, that it will 
resist the muskrats, the weather, the frost, and the 
natural tendency to displacement, which, I suppose, 
all materials in the earth or on its surface are sub- 
ject to. 

If it is necessary to build a dam, I would recom- 
mend to the inexperienced to procure, by all means, 
the skill of an engineer, or practical dam-builder, who 
understands the nature of running water ; for to con- 
fine running water securely is an art in itself, and a 
beginner is almost sure to make a mistake somewhere, 
for which in the end he will pay a heavy penalty in 
losses. 

Running water is the most treacherous of all things, 

* These remarks are intended, of course, for business ponds. 
It does not matter much what amateur ponds are built of. 



24 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

and is always seeking to run in a different channel 
from that artificially provided for it ; and if there is 
a weak spot anywhere about the sides of the dam 
or pond, the water will find it, and sooner or later, 
with the help of muskrats and frost, will bore a hole 
through it, and very likely this will happen in some 
place w^here you f^ave never dreamed of its going. 
Once having gained an advantage, it never loses it, 
but will render your pond more and more unsafe, 
till you make an entire reconstruction of it or aban- 
don it. 

Employ an experienced man, then, to build the dam, 
if you must have one, and tell him to make it doubly 
safe ; and even then, if your experience is like mine, 
you will be sorry you built it. 

9. The shape of the ponds should be adapted to 
your water supply. If you have plenty of water at a 
low temperature, build the ponds of any shape you 
like so that they are not too large. If your water 
supply is small and cold, make your ponds narrow 
and shallow. If the supply is small, and liable to 
heat up, make them narrower still, and deep. Indeed, 
a deep ditch is the best thing where you have neither 
cold nor plentiful water. With average water, experi- 
ence favors oblong ponds, not over twelve or fifteen 
feet in width, nor over three or four feet in depth, 
and of any desirable length ; these ponds can be 
easily inspected, easily swept with a seine, and will 
have no places of concealment for the fish to hide 
away in. 

I think it is a good plan to have the ponds deepest 



PONDS. 2"^ 

in the-middle, and to diminish in depth towards both 
ends, so as to grade off to nothing at the inlet and 
outlet. Such ponds keep the cleanest. If the pond 
is deep at the lower end^ in the course of years a good 
deal of refuse and unclean matter will collect there, 
which you would rather have out of the pond, and 
which would have naturally worked off at the outlet 
if the bottom of the pond gradually shelved up to- 
wards it. 

10. Always, if possible, have your ponds so ar- 
ranged that you can draw off the water, if necessary. 
When you want to make repairs or changes in the 
pond, or wish to clean it out, this will be found a great 
convenience ; but it is especially serviceable when you 
want to use the pond for smaller fish than have been 
living in it, for it is never quite safe to put small fish 
in a pond which has been stocked with larger ones, 
unless it is drawn off. 

Trout have such a wonderful faculty for getting out 
of sight, that even in the best-constructed ponds, where 
the water is not drawn off, they will often elude your 
search, and one or two fish may still be left in the 
pond after you have, as you believe, examined it thor- 
oughly and taken them all out. I need not say how 
mischievous the mistake would prove. Instances 
could be cited of hosts of small fish having been de- 
stroyed by one or two large ones, left unwittingly in the 
pond. Therefore have your pond, if possible, so that 
you can draw it off if required, and always do so when 
you are going to substitute small fish for large ones 
in it. 

2 



26 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

II. Allow no hiding-places in your pond which you 
cannot remove at pleasure. They almost always lead 
to mischief. A dead fish, perhaps, will get in them 
without your knowledge, and foul the water ; or a mink 
will make use of them, and elude you for weeks, or, 
more likely than all, a large cannibal trout will hide 
there and prey on the smaller ones for months, undis- 
covered by you. On the other hand, provide all the 
movable hiding-places within your control that you 
please, — the more, up to a reasonable extent, the bet- 
ter, — but never let them get out of your control, or 
exist without your having access to them. The safe- 
guards against outside dangers, which all ponds should 
possess, are very important, and would, perhaps, more 
naturally come in here, but they will be considered 
under the head of " The Care of Mature Trout." * 

Number of Ponds. 

There is no regulation number of ponds for a trout- 
grower to be governed by. The best rule is to build 
all you want j the usual number, three, recommended 
in books, being no guide to go by. You will certainly 
want three, and probably several more. I have often 
found ten quite few enough. You may be sure of 
this, that you will in time have two sizes of young fry, 
two sizes of yearlings, and at least three sizes of older 
ones, which should be kept apart. 

Besides the ponds for these, you will find a minnow- 
pond, a pond for rare fish,t and two or three experi- 

* See pp. 227 - 234. 

t At the Cold Spring Trout Ponds there is a pond twenty feet 



PONDS. 27 

ment ponds convenient. I should say, build all the 
ponds you please, if you have water enough ; you will 
not have too many. 

Spawning Beds. 

The spawning beds consist simply of a long narrow 
flume, or raceway, at the head of the ponds, where 
the fish come up to spawn. They should be built at 
the very upper end of the pond, and should have a 
good current of water running through them. They 
are generally made of plank, and should be at least 
thirty feet long, with sides eighteen inches deep. 

From the lower end of the spawning beds, the slope 
should be gradual to the lowest level of the bottom of 
the pond. If the slope is abrupt, the fish are not so 
likely to go up the races, and are more likely to spawn 
in the pond. The width of the spawning race will de- 
pend on the volume of the stream, it being an essential 
point to secure a lively current over the beds. Where 
there is plenty of water, the raceways should be four 
feet wide. If the water supply is small, two feet, and 
even eighteen inches, will do. There should be trans- 
verse bars placed on the bottom, across the whole 
width, high enough to make the water above them 
from four to twelve inches deep. The more water you 
have, the deeper you can afford to make the water in 
the beds, without dulling the current too much. 

square, called the happy-family pond, where nine different kinds 
of large fish are kept together, including glass-eyed pike, mul- 
lets, black bass, and others. Although not profitable, I have al- 
ways found it sufficiently interesting to make it worth while to 
keep it up. 



28 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

In the spawning season, a layer of coarse clean 
gravel, three or four inches deep, should be thrown 
into these beds. They should be closely covered, and 
generally your whole force of water turned on. 

The trout will come up here to spawn in preference 
to any other place in the pond, and it is here that 
they are trapped for the purpose of expressing their 
eggs. 

The continued daily disturbing of them for this pur- 
pose will sometimes — and usually, I think — drive 
them down the stream a little lower, towards the end 
of the season. 

It is therefore a good plan to cover and prepare only 
the upper half of the beds at first, and to trap the fish 
there at the beginning of the season, so that when they 
fall back, on account of being disturbed, they will not 
drop far enough down the stream to spawn below the 
lower beds, which, when the proper time comes, can be 
made ready and covered like the rest. 

We have thus far treated wholly of the artificial 
method of taking the eggs. This method has two ob- 
jections. It is entirely artificial, and it involves severe 
work, and exposure to water in the spawning season. 

To obviate these two objections, Hon. Stephen H. 
Ainsworth conceived the very ingenious plan of mak- 
ing the fish spawn naturally, and at the same time of 
saving the eggs. This idea he carried out in what is 
now everywhere known as the Ainsworth Spawning 
Races. 

The following description of this invention is by 
the inventor, Mr. Ainsworth. 



PONDS. 29 



Ainsworth's Spawning Race. 

This race may be built lilve the races made for the artificial 
impregnation of spawn used by nearly all trout-breeders to en- 
tice the trout up from the pond to spawn. It can be made of 
any length, from ten to fifty feet, and from two to six feet wide, 
according to the number of trout which are to use it and the 
amount of water for the supply of the pond. It should be made 
with plank sides and bottom, so tight as to keep out all sedi- 
ment. Paving the bottom nicely with small stones will answer. 
The bottom, whether of plank or stone, must then be covered 
with a half-inch layer of fine, well-washed gravel. 

When one has large trout to spawn in the race, the water 
should be two inches deep at the upper or supply end, and fif- 
teen inches deep at the lower end, where it empties into the 
pond, with a gentle current throughout its whole length. This 
will give good spawning depth to the water for trout of all sizes 
from six to twenty-four inches long. Usually a race three feet 
wide, and from fifteen to twenty feet long, will be quite sufficient 
for a pond of one thousand or eighteen hundred trout. 

The bottom of this race must be covered with fine wire-cloth 
screens, of about ten meshes to the inch, made of zinc or galvan- 
ized wire, so as not to corrode the spawn. Iron wire, if pamtedy 
will answer where zinc cannot be obtained. These wire screens 
must be nailed to wooden frames made of inch-square stuff, the 
frames to correspond in length with the width of the race, and to 
be as wide as the cloth will permit, — say two feet. Strips of 
|-inch stuff must be nailed to the bottom of the race for the 
screens to rest on, in such a manner that they will be raised a 
quarter of an inch above the gravel on the bottom. This is done 
to give good circulation to the water under the spawn as they 
fall on to these wire screens. These screens must be laid the 
whole length of the race, side by side, to catch the spawn as it is 
deposited by the parent trout. 

Now, place over these another set of screens made of coarse 
wire-cloth, of about two or three meshes to the inch, so that the 
spawn will drop through easily. These screens must be nailed 



30 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

• on frames of the same length as the others, but of two-inch stuff, 
and as wide as the cloth will permit. These screens must be 
strong enough to hold two inches of well-washed coarse gravel, 
from three quarters of an inch to two inches in diameter. They 
should be so large that there will be interstices between the 
gravel large enough to let the spawn pass down, if necessary, to 
the lower screen. The upper screens should have handles on 
each end to lift them by, as they will have to be taken out and 
replaced every few days during the spawning season. 

When these two sets of screens are placed the whole length 
of the race, and all is complete, the water will pass over all, two 
inches deep at the supply end and fifteen inches deep at the 
lower end, with a moderate current through the whole race. 
The reader will perceive by the description and diagram that 
there is one inch of space between the two screens to hold the 
spawn as they are deposited by the parent trout, with a' gentle 
current passing over and under them ; and that the upper screen 
prevents the spawn from being destroyed by trout and insects, 
so that they are perfectly safe until removed to the hatching 
box. 

When the trout is ready to spawn, she will enter the race 
from the pond and prepare her nest. This she does by whip- 
ping all the sediment from the gravel with her tail, and then she 
whips or digs a hole in the cleansed gravel about two inches 
deep, or down to the upper screen, and about four inches in 
diameter. She then bends herself down in this hole and presses 
her abdomen on the gravel, and forces out from one hundred to 
five hundred spawn, which fall to the bottom of the hole and 
down through the upper screen to the lower one. She then 
passes up the race, and the male trout attending her comes over 
the nest and spawn and ejects his milt on the ova ; he then 
whips the water in the hole with his tail, sending the water and 
milt in all directions, so that the milt reaches all the spawn on 
the screen or in the gravel, and, as they are ripe and ready for 
the milt, impregnates every one of them. As soon as this is 
done, the mother trout returns and covers up the spawn and 
fills the hole, and soon digs another in like manner, and so on 



PONDS. 31 

till she has deposited all her ova, which sometimes takes two 
weeks. 

There may be from twenty to fifty trout in the race spawn- 
ing at one time, and all, or nearly all, of the spawn will be found 
perfectly impregnated and fully matured, so that they will all 
hatch, if taken out every three days, or once a week, and placed 
in hatching boxes. 

To take the spawn from the lower screens, first take out two 
of the upper screens with what gravel is upon them ; then re- 
move the lower ones, and wash the spawn off into a large pan 
of water carefully, and replace one set behind you, and then 
take up one set at a time and place back, until all are returned. 
Should any spawn remain in the gravel, by raising the screen up 
and down a few times they will drop down through the inter- 
stices. The race must be kept well covered during the time of 
spawning, all persons must be kept away, and the fish disturbed 
as little as possible. 

By this method the spawn are all saved, are perfectly ma- 
tured, are all impregnated, and will all hatch ; the young will be 
perfect, few or none will die, as their sac food is complete, and 
they will be strong and healthy when they commence seeking 
food for themselves. It is much less work to take the spawn 
than by handling, and no parent trout are lost. 

The spawning race above described answered its 
purpose perfectly in making the fish spawn naturally, 
and also lessened the work of getting the eggs. 

The tending of the races, nevertheless, required 
considerable labor and exposure. This latter objec- 
tion was ingeniously surmounted by Mr. A. S. Collins, 
the partner of Seth Green, in a modification of the 
Ainsworth Races, known by the name of the Roller 
Spawning Box. 

I give a description below, written by the inventor. 



32 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Fig. I is a spawning box, with a portion of the side removed. 




Fig. I. 
^ is a double row of coarse wire screens ; B apron of fine wire cloth ; D a 
screen ; F a screen. 

Roller Spawning Box. 

Por taking the naturally impregnated eggs of Brook Trout, Salmon, 
etc. {^Patent of A. S. Collins.) 

In the Roller Spawning Box the principle used is that of the 
Ainsworth Screens, and the improvement consists in a new and 
convenient method of collecting the eggs. A double row of 
coarse wire screens (three meshes to the inch), eight in number, 
each two feet square, are put together in one frame, eight feet by 
four. These screens are to be filled with coarse gravel, and the 
eggs pass through as in Ainsworth's Screens. Under these 
is an endless apron of fine wire-cloth, passing over rollers at the 
two ends of the box. This apron is about one inch beneath the 
upper screen, and is kept from sagging by small cross-bars, 
corresponding to the division of the upper screen. 

These cross-bars are supported by, and, when the rollers are 
turned, slide on, an inch-square strip nailed to the side of the 
box. A similar strip, one inch above, supports the larger screens. 



PONDS. 



33 



The cross-bars also keep the eggs from being carried down by 
the current. By using two small bevelled cog-wheels the front 

roller can be turned by a handle. As the roller is turned for- 

-f 

ward, the endless apron moves with it, and the eggs, as they come 
to the edge of the roller, will fall off. The pan is placed in front 
of the roller, and receives the eggs as they fall. The box need 
not be more than two feet deep ; the depth depending upon the 
size of the rollers, which in a short race may be quite small, and 
the box not more than eighteen inches deep. The box is set 
directly in the raceway, and intended to fill it completely. The 
water may either enter with a fall over the top of the box, or the 
top of the box may be cut down until the water will enter on the 
level at which it is intended to stand over the screens. 
Fie;. 2 is an enlarcred view of the front of the same box. 




Fig. 2. 

/J is a double row of coarse wire screens ; B apron of fine wire cloth ; 
C pan to receive the eggs ; D screen ; E catch to hold screen D when raised. 

A screen, intended to prevent the fish from running beyond the 
race or getting into the lower part of the box, may extend to the 
bottom, or be arranged differently ; a screen placed at the front of 
the box is also intended to prevent the fish from getting below. 
When the eggs are to be taken, this screen is raised on hinges to an 
2* c 



34 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

upright position, and confined by a spring catch or latch. This 
confines the fish which may happen to be in the race, and none 
of them can get below. The pan is then lowered to its position, 
the roller turned, and the eggs taken. When the operation is fin- 
ished the screen is again lowered, the button turned, and the work 
is done. If the box is wide, say four feet, it is more convenient 
to have the pan made in two or three sections, inserted in 
a light frame, as the eggs can be more easily carried in and 
poured out of a shorter pan. It is better, perhaps, to make the 
screen to open in the middle, having hinges at both sides. Then 
one half will keep the fish in the pond, and the other half the fish 
in the race, from running into the well. The box can be made of 
any length from four feet to forty feet, and of any width from two 
feet to six or eight. If it is made very wide, an additional longi- 
tudinal support must be provided for the revolving screen. We 
recommend the following dimensions for speckled-trout races : 
two feet wide, and from ten to twenty feet long ; or four feet 
wide, and from twenty to forty feet long. The upper screens may 
be made in convenient sections, the whole width of the box, and 
six or eight feet long. 

The end screens are so made that while a full current is per- 
mitted to flow over the upper screens, only a gentle current can 
flow through the under part of the box. This current is meant 
to be so regulated that when the pan is placed about an inch 
from the turning-roller, all the small stones which the trout may 
whip through the upper screen will fall short of the pan ; the 
eggs, being lighter, will be carried by the current into the pan, 
while a great part of the dirt, etc., which may collect on the 
under screen will be carried up over the pan and entirely out of 
the box. The revolving screen may be made of tarred muslin or 
mosquito-netting. But wire-cloth (of ten or twelve meshes to 
the inch) keeps much the cleanest, and we are inclined to think 
it best for the purpose. I make my aprons half wire-cloth and 
half tarred muslin, furnishing the wire only with cross-bars, and 
always leaving it uppermost. This apron is fastened around the 
rollers by a lacing of cord. At the end of the season the water 
in the pond can be drawn down a foot, and everything taken out 



PONDS. 35 

but the rollers. Give the screens a coat of pamt or gas tar, and 
lay them away in a dry place until the next autumn. A stiff 
brush may also be placed under the forward roller, so that every 
time the roller is turned to remove the eggs the screen will be 
perfectly clean. 

The box can be so arranged that the rollers also can be re- 
moved each season ; and this arrangement on various accounts 
is much the best. 

This box looks, at first sight, somewhat complicated, but is 
in reality very simple, and easier to make than to describe. Any 
one who has the knack of using tools can make one which will 
answer the purpose perfectly. The cost is very little more than 
that of the Ainsworth Screens (of the same area) as generally 
used. The cost for wire being the same in both cases, the lum- 
ber in the box itself being extra, and also the rollers, hinges, and 
cog-wheels (or windlass wheel). 

A few of the advantages of the plan are as follows : Let us 
compare a double row of forty Ainsworth Screens, each two feet 
square and occupying a space in the raceway forty feet long and 
four feet wide, with one of the new spawning boxes of the same 
dimensions. 

1st. By the old way it would take two men a good half-day to 
remove the screens singly, feather off the eggs in a careful man- 
ner, and return each (double) screen to its proper place. 

It would take the new spawning box about fifteen minutes to 
do the same work with one man. 

2d. The weight of the gravel which has to be lifted in the old 
way every time the eggs are removed amounts to many tons in 
the course of a season. 

In the new box the gravel is not lifted at all. 

3d. By the old way the operator's hands must of necessity be 
more or less wet during the whole operation. Now, as the trout 
and salmon spawn during the winter season, when the thermom- 
eter generally stands below the freezing-point, taking eggs in the 
old way is not only inconvenient and painful, but often impos- 
sible. 

By the new way the hands are not made wet, and may be kept 
comfortably gloved. 



36 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

4th^ By the old way more or less of the eggs are lost by care- 
less feathering, exposing the eggs to the freezing atmosphere, 
clumsiness in handling the screens (caused by cold fingers), 
tipping of the screens, wash of the current, etc., etc. 

By the new way every egg is saved. 

5th. By the old method every fish is driven out of the race 
when the eggs are taken. Some of them will not return, but 
will seek a spawning-place in the pond, and many eggs will be 
unavoidably lost. 

By the new way the fish are not driven from the race. And 
as the boxes are always covered during the season, the fish will 
not even be disturbed. In fact, they may spawn while the eggs 
are bemg taken, and yet not a single egg be lost. 

This Spawning-Box answers for securing the naturally im- 
pregnated eggs of salmon, salmon trout, speckled brook trout, 
whitefish, shad, etc. It is recommended by the leading piscicul- 
turists of the country. 

Mr. Ainsworth's idea was one of great value, and 
Mr. Collins's device an excellent modification of it, and 
I cordially recommend their methods to those who 
wish to avoid the labor and exposure of taking the 
eggs artificially. 

No one who has not had experience in taking spawn 
by hand can conceive of the amount of labor and hard- 
ship which this beautiful contrivance saves. There is 
some difference of opinion as to the question which 
yields the most eggs, the artificial or the screen method, 
and the results of some experiments of Mr. F. Mather 
seem to be adverse to the Ainsworth plan. I will not 
express an opinion here on this point, but will say that 
the saving of exposure by the Collins Roller Box is 
worth paying a good many eggs for. 



PONDS. 37 

Inlets and Outlets. 

12. The inlets and outlets of your ponds should be 
ample, and securely "jointed," if I may use the word, 
to the ponds ; that is, so joined to the side of the pond 
that no water will ever work its way under or around 
them. This is so simple and safe a process with the 
plank system, that the advantages derived from this 
alone would decide me in favor of the use of plank 
ponds. 

The outlet is usually a plank trough, or bulkhead, 
with a screen to confine the fish, and the inlet is the 
same, except that one half the floor of the bulkhead 
is made to project over the pond, and is formed of 
hard-wood slats, laid longitudinally with the length of 
the bulkhead, and a quarter or half an inch apart. 
This is much better than a screen, because, while it 
answers the same purpose in confining the fish, it lets 
through all the food from above, and does not get 
so easily clogged up. 

When a bulkhead inlet or outlet is made to a com- 
mon earth pond, great care should be taken to have 
piling driven down to the hard pan below, and on both 
sides, for several feet ; and even then in some soils 
the water will work through it in the course of years. 

Be sure to make the outlets broad enough to admit 
a screen of sufficient size to carry off all the water at 
its highest possible flood height, making large allow- 
ance, also, for the clogging up of screen. Always have 
a gate at the inlet which will wholly shut off" the water 
in case of danger. 



38 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



Screens. 

Screens hold a very responsible position in trout 
culture. 

All that separates your thousands of fish fi:om the 
outer world, where they would be lost to you, is the 
twentieth-of-an-inch barrier of wire-screen. As far as 
their voluntary escape is concerned, the wire-screens 
stand in the place of gates, locks, bolts, and bars. It 
is obvious how responsible their office is. 

All screens should be of copper or galvanized iron. 
Copper is best for fine-mesh screens, galvanized iron 
for large meshes. 

Wooden slats answer very well for grown-up trout. 

In using slats it should be remembered that a fish, 
by turning on its side, will go through a surprisingly 
narrow aperture, if it is long enough. A square mesh 
of iron will hold fish securely, when slats would need 
to be only half the width of the mesh apart. 

The wire netting should be fastened on to firm 
frames, and the frames should fit tight in their place, 
especially at the bottom. 

Thousands of fish have been lost by neglecting this 
simple precaution. 

There should be eighteen threads to the inch for 
the very smallest fry, four threads to the inch for year- 
lings, and two to the inch for two-year-olds. 

For placing the screens for the young fry, see p. 59. 

If leaves or other debris coming down the stream 
make trouble by clogging the outlet screen, you can 
protect it by building out a board frame, say a 



PONDS. 39 

foot deep, in front of the screen, with about eight 
inches of its width below the water and four inches 
above ; this will catch and retain the obstructions float- 
ing down, and the screen will remain comparatively 
clean. 

Where it is practicable, it is a good plan to have all 
the inlets and outlets of the ponds of the same size, 
so that the screen of any one will fit all the rest. This 
secures uniformity of size in the screens, and is often a 
great convenience when it becomes desirable to move 
a screen from one pond to another. 

When there is danger of too much water, have a side 
channel provided to carry it off. This channel should 
be considerably lower than the inlet to your pond, 
should be the channel the stream would naturally seek 
when shut off from the ponds, and should be very 
ample. I would have it, for safety's sake, double the 
capacity of any freshet that was ever known on the 
stream. For the want of this precaution, trout enough 
have been lost, within my own knowledge, to make a 
fortune. 

It is usually the best plan to leave the natural chan- 
nel of the brook for the surplus water, and to build 
your ponds on one side of it, and take off the water 
supply for them from the brook. This is the way 'the 
breeding ponds at the Cold Spring Trout Ponds are 
arranged, and it is the safest way in time of a freshet. 



_ CHAPTER HI. 

BUILDINGS. 

THE hatching house is the one essential building in 
fish breeding ; but a thorough trout-breeding es- 
tablishment should have, besides the hatching house, 
several other buildings or rooms, as, for instance, a 
meat-room, carpenter's shop, and ice-house. It is not, 
of course, necessary to have a separate building for all 
these, but each one should have at least a separate 
room. 

The reader inquires at once, I suppose, why the 
hatching house will not answer for all of these pur- 
poses, except, possibly, the ice-house. The reason is 
this ; if you engage in hatching on any considerable 
scale, you will have water running through the house 
in great quantities, half the year, and perhaps all the 
year round. The result will be that this house will be 
the dampest place you ever were in, and everything in 
it, that moisture can hurt, will be spoiled. Tools will 
rust, the firewood will not burn, the kindlings will be 
soaked, your scales, microscopes, matches, pails, pans, 
and papers, — everything, in fact, will become intolera- 
bly damp. 

Then, again, the hatching house, being built for the 
use of water, should not contain anything that would 



BUILDINGS. 41 

restrict the most perfect freedom in its use. If it is 
essential to turn a stream of water over some fish, in 
an unusual place in the house, for a week or so, there 
should be no such obstacle in the way of it as the 
danger of exposing tools, or microscopes, or any uten- 
sils, to too much dampness. Therefore I would have 
the hatching house, or hatching room, devoted to the 
water, and have all other considerations so subordinate 
to this that you can deluge the house with water at 
any time you like, without doing any harm, and without 
any feeling of restraint, on account of things in it be- 
ing injured by the dampness. 

This is the reason why it is not best to use the 
hatching room for the other purposes mentioned. 

The buildings or rooms which I would recommend 
are, a meat-room, an office, a storeroom and carpen- 
ters shop combined in one, and an ice-house. 

I. The meat-room. You should bear in mind that 
a stock of ten thousand large trout will consume at 
least forty pounds of meat a day ; this is over a thou- 
sand pounds a month. 

This food must first be cut up, and some sorted 
out for the young fry and some for the old trout. 
Then the meat for the large fish must be run through 
a coarse meat-cutter, and that for the small ones 
through a finer one, and the meat must be kept 
thawed out in the winter, and fresh in the sum- 
mer. This handling of the meat, sometimes a thou- 
sand pounds in a month, sometimes more, and keep- 
ing it in the right condition in all seasons, is no 
small task, and unless it has a separate room devoted 



42 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

to it becomes an intolerable nuisance, especially in 
the decomposing heat of summer. 

I would then, by all means, have the meat-room by 
itself, and here in this room, and nowhere else, should 
be kept the two meat-cutters, with their stands, the 
meat-grater (if you use one) for the young fry, the meat- 
bench, the pails, pans, and baskets for holding and car- 
rying the meat, the meat itself, and everything else, 
in short, that belongs to the commissary department, 
— in this room, and nowhere else. 

The most disagreeable feature about trout-breed- 
ing is the commissariat ; and the more you keep it by 
itself, and out of sight, and out of the way of every- 
thing else, the more desirable your place will be, and 
the better you will like your work. 

The meat-room, like the other rooms, should have a 
plank floor, with a trap-door in it, should be well ven- 
tilated, should have a tank of water in it, supplied by 
a stream large enough to keep it from freezing in the 
winter and heating up in the summer, and arranged 
so that the whole stream can be turned on to the floor 
when it is cleaned or " swashed," — which should be 
often, — and whatever other conveniences may be de- 
sired. 

The tank is not only to furnish water to keep things 
clean, but it will be found to be the best place in the 
summer to keep the meat, and the only place in win- 
ter. I have tried both the ice-house and the spring 
water for this purpose, but have found that the spring 
water answers much the best in practice. 

2. The next most important room is the store- 



BUILDINGS. 43 

room and carpenter's shop combined ; these can be 
together as well as not. They are required, because 
a great amount of lumber, old screens and screen- 
frames, pails and pans not in use, and a thousand 
other things, will collect about the place, which you 
will want to have under cover and in a dry place. 
Then there is so much little work constantly to be 
done, — what is called in New England "puttering," — 
that a carpenter's bench and tools are almost indis- 
pensable, the more so because what needs to be done 
must often be done at once, before one can send for a 
carpenter to come and do it. 

3. An office is a very desirable thing about a trout- 
breeding establishment. It is almost as indispensable, 
in fact, as the carpenter's bench, unless your house is 
right on the spot. 

The office will be your comfortable room, where 
you can keep a fire, can transact business, make your 
microscopic examinations, examine the progress of ex- 
periments, take notes, do your writing, receive orders, 
and keep your record-books and show-case of speci- 
mens. Indeed, so many things call for such a room 
that no establishment is complete, without it. 

4. An ice-house is absolutely necessary, unless you 
can depend upon ice, whenever you want it, from out- 
side sources ; and even then it is desirable. In trans- 
porting live fish, young or old, you cannot do without 
ice, except in cold weather, and you may sometimes 
need it for the meat-house ; you will frequently need ice 
unexpectedly, and you must have it for shipping your 
large fish to market. Have an ice-house, then, by all 



44 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

means, and locate it near the hatching house, and 
where the fish are packed for market. A building of 
the size of an ordinary family ice-house will do. 

5. Besides these rooms, there are at the Cold Spring 
Trout Ponds a bird-pen, made of plank, large and dur- 
able, and a fox-pen, also built of wood and of good size. 
The bottom of the latter, made of plank, is laid three feet 
under ground, and is covered with earth to this depth, 
so that the animals confined may have a good place to 
burrow in, without being able to escape by burrowing. 
These pens are desirable, because as you will trap more 
or less about your place, you will sometimes catch ani- 
mals and large birds alive, which you may like to keep 
alive. There is also a roughly built shanty, with a 
stove in it, near the spawning beds, in which the spawn 
can be taken in stormy weather, which is also recom- 
mended. 

The Hatching House. 

The hatching house, or hatching room, is, of course, 
the central point of the whole establishment. 

Here the swarms of young trout upon which the 
other departments depend for their supply are brought 
into being; the greatest care, therefore, should be 
exercised in having it just right. 

It should in general be roomy, well lighted, firm, 
and durable. Such a one, however roughly made, will 
answer its purpose of hatching as well as a more ex- 
pensive one ; though if one's means are unrestricted, 
there is no reason why it should not be a handsome 
building, and an ornament to the place, like that of 
Colonel Thompson at Springfield, for instance. 



BUILDINGS. 45 

The size of the hatching house depends on the 
amount of work to be done in it. A room thirty feet 
long and eighteen feet wide will have hatching space 
for one hundred thousand eggs, besides passage-ways 
between the troughs, or hatching-stands, and con- 
siderable spare room to keep the gravel-boxes, and 
to work in. 

For more eggs you will of course need more room ; 
but, whatever the amount of business you do, it should 
be remembered that it is far better to have too much 
room than too little. I know of few things more dis- 
agreeable than a cramped hatching house."* 

The hatching house should be located near the 
spring or reservoir which supplies it with water ; for 
the longer the aqueduct which takes the water from 
the spring to the house, the greater is the risk of the 
water going wrong. The house should also be placed, 
if possible, so that the water will enter it several feet 
above the floor. This will enable the hatching appa- 
ratus to be elevated to a convenient height for examin- 
mg the eggs standing or sittmg, which is a great ad- 
vantage ; and I think it is better, on the whole, to incur 
the risk of a longer aqueduct from the spring, if neces- 
sary, to obtain this advantage. 

No fire is required in the hatching room, to keep the 
water warm.t That keeps warm of itself, and also keeps 

* Our hatching-house at the Mirimichi Salmon Breeding 
Works is a hundred feet long. 

t It is an addition to one's personal comfort to have a stove in 
the hatching house, though it may not be required to warm the 
water. 



46 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

the house comparatively warm. There is often a diiTer- 
ence of 30° between the outside air and the interior 
of the hatching room in extremely cold weather. 

It is a good plan to build the walls thick, and then 
the water running through will keep the air not very 
many degrees from its own temperature. 

This makes a much more comfortable room to 
work in. 

The shape of the hatching house will be determined 
almosjt wholly by local considerations. 

It is becoming quite the custom now to admit the 
light into the hatching room by large movable sky- 
lights in the roof; this is optional, however, unless 
sufficient light cannot be obtained otherwise. 

I will only add that if the four rooms mentioned — 
the office, storeroom, meat-room, and hatching room — 
are included in one building, the first three should be 
separated from the hatching room by a partition prC' 
pared with waterproof cement, or other covering, 
impervious to water. 



CHAPTER IV. 
HATCHING APPARATUS. 

THE hatching apparatus consists of the supply 
reservoir, the aqueducts, the filtering arrange- 
ments, the distributing spout, and the troughs, or 
hatching apparatus proper. 

The Supply Reservoir, 

The supply reservoir, which hatches the eggs, is the 
great motive power of the whole establishment. It 
is this which does the work of replenishing all the 
other departments of the trout farm. 

On its steady, unfailing supply everything depends. 
If it should fail from any cause during the hatching 
season, the whole year's increase would be lost. It 
follows, then, from the importance of this agency, that 
it should be most securely guarded. You should, 
therefore, in enclosing the reservoir, make your work 
very firm and secure, especially the lowest parts of it, 
where there is the most danger. Leave nothing to 
chance in this work. Take no risk whatever, but 
guard it from the possibility of breaking away ; and 
in doing so, do not forget that muskrats and frost 
will have no more consideration for your hatching 
reservoir — so important to you — than for any other 
body of water. 



48 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Make it as small as you can without sacrificing 
water. Cover it from dirt, leaves, and light. Keep 
it perfectly clean, and never put any fish into it under 
any temptation ; and finally, unless you are certain that 
you can make a very sure thing of it yourself, employ 
an experienced man to construct it for you. 

Hatching-Room Aqueduct. 

One of the most important parts of the whole hatch- 
ing apparatus is the aqueduct which takes the water 
from the hatching reservoir to the hatching room. It 
may be nothing but a simple short pipe or spout, but 
its ofiice is nevertheless exceedingly responsible. In- 
deed, it is literally a sine qua non of a hatching 
establishment to have this aqueduct safe ; for if it 
fails for a night to fulfil its purpose during the period 
of incubation, that is the end of that season's opera- 
tions, and unless you buy more eggs, there will be a 
gap of one year in your chain of fish broods that never 
will be filled up. 

This aqueduct, therefore, ought to be made espe- 
cially secure. To make it so, i. Build it of i J-inch 
or 2-inch plank, and fasten it firmly so that frost 
cannot heave it, and so that it cannot be dis- 
placed by any accident whatever. I have known 
serious loss to result from an aqueduct being simply 
pushed out of place by the foot. 

2. Char the plank. This I consider very important 
indeed, if you use plank, for "'you cannot be certain, 
without charring it, that fungus is not being generated 
in it. Do not imagine that you are safe from fungus 



HATCHING APPARATUS. 49 

because your hatching boxes themselves are well 
guarded from it. It may grow in the aqueduct and 
be borne down by the stream, and before winter is 
over, you may find, to your dismay, that it has fastened 
its fatal grasp on your eggs. If so, they are ruined. 
There is no remedy for fungus which will make 
healthy fish of the eggs attacked. They may hatch, 
but the ypung fish will be good for nothing to raise. 
Therefore begin at the beginning, and guard your eggs 
from fungus by charring the aqueduct. 

3. As a rule, it is best to have the aqueduct covered, 
but beware of making the outlet end smaller than the 
inlet end, for then, if anything gets into the pipe too 
large to pass through the outlet, it will stop the water, 
and your eggs will be ruined. I have known great 
danger and actual loss to come from such a defective 
aqueduct. In one instance a frog got into the pipe, 
in another a muskrat, in another a cork ; each of which 
came very near shutting off the water altogether and 
doing very great mischief. For further safety, put a 
coarse, galvanized-iron screen over the end of the 
aqueduct which receives the water. 

4. If you have a small stream, and must convey it 
a considerable distance, and want to economize any- 
thing in temperature, you can keep it a little warmer 
by boxing up the aqueduct itself. But as a general 
thing it is labor wasted. You will be astonished 
to see how little any considerable stream changes 
in temperature in passing through even a long closed 
spout. 

At the writer's works at Charlestown, N. H., when 
3 D 



50 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

the mercury is io° below zero, the water at the hatch- 
ing house loses only two degrees in passing through 
one hundred and twenty feet of channel. 

The Filtering Arrangements. 

Next to fungus, sediment is the most dangerous 
enemy to trout eggs, and, like fungus, it is the more 
to be dreaded because it is invisible ; that is, as it 
is held naturally in the water. A stream or a spring 
may look to you as clear as crystal, you may examine 
most carefully and not find any traces of dust or foreign 
matter in it, yet the same water in running sixty days 
over any given spot will very likely deposit enough 
sediment to kill a million eggs. Some few springs are, 
I believe, sufficiently free from sediment to be used 
without filtering, but such springs are exceedingly 
rare, and are the exceptions. As a rule, all springs 
and streams, however clear they may appear, will in 
time deposit a fine layer of dust, or sediment, as it 
is usually called, which is sufficient to destroy or de- 
form all the fish embryos that are exposed to it. 

It is very important, therefore, to have this sediment 
kept away from the eggs ; and to effect this, the water 
is conveyed through a very efficient filtering apparatus. 
This usually consists of a large tank containing a 
series of flannel screens. These screens consist sim- 
ply of light wooden frames, with flannel fastened on 
them, which are made to slide in grooves prepared 
for the purpose, on the inside of the tank. 

The flannel should be drawn tight over the frames, 
and the frames themselves should slide obliquely into 



HATCHING APPARATUS. 



51 



the tank at a very considerable angle, say 45°, with 
the lower end up stream. 




a Flannel filters. ' 

b Hatching-room aqueduct or inlet. 
c Outlet. 

The tank should be built very solid, of two-inch 
plank, charred, and should be bound with iron bands, 
to prevent spreading. Its size will be governed, of 
course, by the amount of filtering required, a small or 
very clean stream needing less than a large or com- 
paratively turbid one. But be sure of one thing, that 
the tank is large enough, no matter how large that 
may be, to arrest all the sediment, beyond all possi- 
bility of risk. Thousands of eggs have been lost by 
the filtering tank being inadequa,te. Better have it 
twice as large as is necessary, than to incur any risk 
of not stopping the sediment. 

At the Cold Spring Trout Ponds there are two 
tanks for filtering, one containing eighty-one gallons 
and six filters, the other one hundred and sixty-eight 
gallons and seven filters. 

I should say that it was better to have two medi- 



52 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

um-sized tanks than to have one excessively large 
one. 

I should call the first of the two just mentioned a 
medium-sized one, and the second a large one, as 
large, perhaps, as should be made. 

The outlet of the filtering tank should be at least 
six inches lower than the top of the tank, to guard 
against the water escaping over the top when the 
screens clog up. There should be two holes at least 
an inch in diameter in the bottom of the tank, to let 
the water off when necessary, and they should be 
plugged with very long stoppers, which will come 
nearly to the surface, so that they can be withdrawn 
without the arm being much immersed in the water. 

The filters themselves may be made of any kind 
of strong, coarse flannel. White has the advantage of 
showing dirt best, and red, Seth Green says, will last the 
longest j otherwise, one color will do as well as another. 

These filters must be watched, and, no matter how 
often they require it, they must be taken out and 
cleaned as soon as they are dirty; but in doing this the 
rear one should be moved as little as possible. If 
you clean while wet, wash them under water, either 
with a bruah, or a long-handled stick smoothed at the 
end ; the brush is the quickest method, the stick 
wears them out less. If you have a chance to dry 
them, the deposit on them can be easily brushed off 
with a dry brush. It may be necessary to clean the fil- 
ters every day. If it is, do not neglect it. The tank is 
placed, of course, at the outlet of the spring aqueduct, 
which is usually at the head of the hatching-room, and 



HATCHING APPARATUS. 53 

no water should be allowed to pass over the eggs any 
length of time, without having first run through this 
tank. The tank need not be covered. 

The Distributing Spout. 

The next thing in order is the distributing spout, 
the office of which is simply to receive the water from 
the filtering tank, and distribute it into the various 
hatching troughs. 

It joins the filtering tank, and extends, of course, 
either way, as far as the hatching troughs reach later- 
ally, over which it is placed. 

It is provided with an outlet at the head of each 
trough, and it will be found a convenience to have all 
these outlets levelled so as to each draw an equal 
supply of water when they are open. To secure this, 
the openings farthest from the inlet screen should 
be a little lower than the next, and so on, for the 
water at the inlet will be a little higher than the 
other end. If built of wood, the distributing spout 
should be of ij-inch plank, charred, and should be 
abundantly ample in width and depth for its purpose. 

There should also be an aqueduct connecting the 
^ater supply above the filtering tank with the dis- 
tributing spout, so that the water can be temporarily 
turned directly into the distributing spout when it 
becomes necessary to wash the tanks. 

The distributing spout often has gravel placed in it 
for an additional filter. This is a good plan, because 
the gravel gathers up whatever fine sediment may 
have run the gantlet of the flanpel filters, and any 



54 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

fine fibre of the flannel itself, which has become de- 
tached from the screens. But it is a better plan to have 
a special spout or aqueduct for the gravel filter, be- 
tween the filtering tank and the distributing spout, and 
to have the latter free from gravel, on account of the 
gravel in it being often an inconvenience. The gravel 
should be coarse enough to let the water pass through 
it freely, the pieces being of the average size of chest- 
nuts, or larger. There is usually enough of this coarse 
gravel sifted out when the fine gravel is being pre- 
pared for the hatching troughs. • 

If fine gravel is used, it will force the water to flow 
over it, and thus defeat its purpose. 

Hatching Troughs, or Hatching Apparatus. 

The hatching apparatus is of course the central fea- 
ture of your whole indoor establishment, the part for 
which, indeed, all the rest is created. This is the foun- 
tain-head, from which all the other departments of the 
fish farm are furnished with stock. Here you intrust, 
for six months, the whole of your year's increase, and 
it occupies so responsible a place that no pains should 
be spared to get it right. Indeed, you cannot overrate 
the importance of having your hatching apparatus 
without a fault, especially as a single defect or neglect 
may cost you your whole stock of young fishes, — not 
merely part, but perhaps the whole. 

Materials. 

Various kinds of material have been used for hatch- 
ing trout eggs, the principal of which are wood, soap- 



HATCHING APPARATUS. 55 

stone, slate, pottery, metal, wood with glass lining, glass 
grilles, and charcoal, or carbonized wood. I think ex- 
perience will finally reduce the number in general prac- 
tice to two, namely, glass grilles and carbonized wood. 

Wood in its natural state is out of the question, for 
the fungus that it grows wholly unfits it for hatching. 
I venture to say that hundreds of thousands of eggs 
have been destroyed by the fungus coming from wood- 
en troughs. Metal, whether in the form of screens 
or anything else, will not do, because the absorbing 
power of trout eggs is so great, that, if placed in con- 
tact with it, they will in time absorb enough metallic 
matter to destroy them."^ 

Slate, pottery, and soapstone answer very well, but are 
all expensive ; and if an expensive article is used, glass 
grilles, I think, have the preference over everything else. 

For cleanliness, tidiness, and convenience they are 
not surpassed by anything. Their expense is their 
only objection. Charcoal troughs, on the other hand, 
are equally as effective as grilles, and infinitely more 
economical. They are also more accessible, more 
simple, and more durable. 

In estimating their comparative merits I should say 
that the glass grilles are the thing for the rich man's 
experiments, and the carbonized troughs are the thing 
for business ; I cannot but think that the carbonized 
troughs will supersede everything else, where trout- 

* Fourteen trout eggs were placed on a topper-wire screen, in 
November, 1869, at the Cold Spring Trout Ponds, and in fifty 
days they had absorbed so much copper that they were of a 
dark brown tinge, and hard like peas. 



56 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

breeding is carried on on a large scale, or where dura- 
bility, economy, or accessibility must be consulted.* 

The comparative expense of the two methods may 
be estimated as follows : Glass grilles cost per tray 
1 3.50 each, by the quantity.f Allowing 1,250 eggs to 
each tray,t the apparatus for hatching 100,000 eggs, 
with glass grilles, costs $ 280. 

The expense of the patent carbonized troughs, includ- 
ing cost of right to use them, is less than forty cents a 
foot, for one hundred square feet. Allowing 1,000 eggs 
to the square foot, the apparatus for hatching 100,000 
eggs, with the carbonized troughs, costs $40, leaving a 
balance of $ 240 in favor of the carbonized troughs. 

Besides this, in the country, where most of our trout 
ponds are and will be, the wood to make the troughs, 
and also wood to char them with, is always plenti- 
ful and within reach, and, once prepared and placed, 
the carbonized troughs will last no one can tell how 
long. The perfect freedom of charcoal from fungus, 
and its tendency to purify the water, will, I feel confi- 
dent, make it a favorite for hatching all eggs that are 
to be long under water. The carbonized troughs were 
first experimented with at the writer's salmon-breed- 
ing establishment on the Mirimichi River, where they 
worked to perfection. They have since been used at 
the Cold Spring Trout Ponds, and have given the most 
complete satisfaction. X 

* See extract from Dr. Slack's Catalogue of fish-breeding 
apparatus, p. 65. 

t See Dr. Slack's Catalogue, p. 4. 

J The use of charcoal or carbonized wood for hatching fish 
was patented by the writer, June 20, 187 1. 



HATCHING APPARATUS. 5/ 

They seem to have solved the problem of obtaining 
a safe, economical, and durable material for hatching 
trout. I am aware that some of our largest operators 
have used wood loosely lined with glass, but it costs a 
good deal to get the glass, and it is also extremely un- 
safe when the young fry hatch, for they will get under 
the glass by thousands, and die of suffocation ; and 
finally it does not answer perfectly, as charcoal does, 
the purpose for which it is used, namely, to obviate 
the growth of fungus. 

I would recommend, therefore, the use of glass grilles 
if you have the means and think they are better. Use 
charcoal or charred wood if you do not use grilles. 

Placing the Hatching Troughs. 

Having decided on the material for the hatching 
boxes, the next thing is to construct and place them. 
If you use charcoal or carbonized troughs, you should 
first send to the Cold Spring Trout Ponds, at Charles- 
town, N. H., and obtain the right to use them, they 
being patented, and the directions how to prepare 
them. 

As to the size and shape of the hatching boxes or 
troughs, a great variety of opinion prevails. The fol- 
lowing suggestions, however, may serve as a guide in 
making a selection. If you are limited in your supply 
of water, you should use long and rather narrow troughs, 
say twenty feet long by eight inches wide, and if you 
wish, you can have another trough of the same size be- 
low the first tier, using the same water over again, pro- 
vided you have a fall between the two troughs of six 
3* 



58 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

or eight inches. This second lower tier of boxes is, 
however, somewhat objectionable, because whenever 
the screens of the upper boxes are cleaned, or the 
water in tliem for any reason disturbed, the lower ones, 
in taking the washings from the upper, must suffer. 
This can be obviated, it is true, by cutting off the water 
temporarily, but this, again, is not only dangerous, but 
often inconvenient. It is best, therefore, not to use the 
water but once in hatching, if you have enough. Still it 
can be used twice, if necessary, without great injury. 
If you have plenty of water, I would recommend shorter 
troughs and more of them. There is no harm in hav- 
ing them twelve inches wide. I prefer ten or eight 
inches, however. They should be at least six inches 
in height in the inside, to guard against their running 
over, from the screens clogging up, and it is desirable 
to have them still higher, say eight inches, if you 
mean to keep the young fry in them any considerable 
time after they hatch. The troughs should be divided 
into compartments about one inch deep and fifteen 
inches long, by nailing charred cleats of the required 
depth transversely on the bottom of the trough, at 
regular intervals of fifteen inches. The head of the 
trough should be placed just under the distribut- 
ing spout, from which there should be a fall of a 
few inches ; the trough should be high enough from the 
floor, if practicable, to be examined by a person stand- 
ing. The troughs should be inclined, so that the water 
will make a gentle ripple over the cleats. A grade 
having a fall of one and one fourth inches to ten feet 
will do very well, but be sure to have enough slope to 



HATCHING APPARATUS. 59 

make the ripple, otherwise your fish, when hatched, will 
not be as strong as they might have been. At the 
lower end of the trough there. should be a copper-wire 
screen of about eighteen or twenty threads to the inch. 
This screen should be very carefully fitted in, and 
should be made as tight a fit as human handiwork can 
make it, otherwise you cannot be sure that the young 
fry, when first hatched, will not slip through. In order 
to be perfectly sure to get this s'creen safe, first exam- 
ine the place or bed that it fits into, with a strong light, 
and take care that every bit of sand or gravel is re- 
moved from it. Then put down the screen, having 
previously arranged a perfectly tight fit in the side 
cleats, and hammer it down. 

This done, sift sand along the bottom and sides of 
the screen, bank up with gravel to the height of the 
transverse cleats, and sift sand about the sides again. 
You are then as safe as you can be with regard to the 
screen, and with these precautions you will be pretty 
sure not to lose many fish by this most common of all 
avenues of escape, — loosely fitting screens. Should 
any aperture be caused in the future by any spring- 
ing or shrinking of the wood, or otherwise, calk" the 
opening with flannel without delay. Below this screen 
should be placed what is called a trap-box, to catch 
any of the young fry that may escape through the 
screen above. This trap-box is nothing but a com- 
mon box with a wire screen, which will let out the 
water, but hold the fish that come into it. I would 
have one at the end of every hatching trough. They 
are a very important safeguard, for they not only save 



60 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

all the fish that come through the screen, but will al- 
ways tell you whether any are escaping, and also 
whether the screens are tight. If you do not provide 
this safeguard, thousands of fish may escape before 
you know it. It is a good plan also to have a larger 
box or reservoir, still farther down, on a similar plan, 
collecting the water from all the troughs, and arranged 
so as to detain everything that may have escaped, from 
any cause, from above ; and I think I may safely say 
that you will be astonished to find how often the 
young fry slip past places that you have considered 
perfectly tight. Having so far prepared the hatching 
troughs for action, and having tried them by running a 
stream of water through them, the next thing is 

Laying the Gravel. 

Gravel is i^sed to hatch the eggs upon. This 
hatching gravel should be the size of half a pea, 
or less. Coarser gravel will not do, because the 
eggs will get into the chinks between the stones, and, 
being out of sight, will die without your knowledge ; 
and when they die, the dead eggs will certainly grow 
the fatal byssus, which will stretch its long arms out 
over other eggs above or near it, and destroy them. 
Coarse gravel is very vexatious on this account. Any 
clean gravel of the right size, free from rust, rotten 
stone, and the like, will do, and you will frequently 
find such gravel nearer than you suppose. It is 
therefore a good plan to try any high banks near by, 
before sending a great way for it. You may often 
find just what you want in a bank right over your 



HATCHING APPARATUS. 6 1 

brook. To prepare the gravel for use, you should 
have two screens, one to sift out the sand, and another 
to hold the coarse gravel. The residue which remains 
in the first and goes through the second screen is 
what you want for the hatching troughs. 

Having obtained the right size of gravel, the next 
thing is to wash it. This should be thoroughly done. 
Then you can boil it, if you wish, to kill the insect 
larvae in it ; and I would advise you to do this by all 
means, for the larvae in unboiled gravel often produce 
insects that are very destructive to the eggs and young 
fish. It is not absolutely necessary to use gravel in 
charcoal troughs, as the eggs will hatch safely on the 
charcoal bottom. Twenty thousand salmon-eggs were 
placed directly on the bottom of the charred troughs, 
at the writer's establishment on the Mirimichi River, 
by way of experiment, and they did as well as the 
others hatched on gravel. A thin layer of gravel, 
however, is recommended. The gravel, if used, should 
be evenly placed in the troughs to the depth of about 
half an inch. According to the old method of hatching 
on wood in its natural condition, the gravel was placed 
an inch and a half deep, to prevent the fungus from 
growing up through it ; but in charcoal troughs, where 
there is no fungus, half an inch in depth, and even 
less, is sufficient. Be careful to level it off evenly, 
and leave no holes or depressions, or the eggs will 
surely collect in them deeper than they ought to. 

There is always so much use for gravel about trout- 
breeding works, that it is a good plan to save all kinds, 
and what has been used once, and not washed, put 



62 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

away by itself. It is therefore a good plan to have 
four barrels or large boxes in the hatching house, — 
one for coarse gravel not clean, and one for fine gravel 
not clean, one for clean coarse gravel, and one for 
clean fine gravel. These boxes should be distinctly 
labelled, so that clean and dirty gravel will not get 
mixed ; and in course of time this little systematizing 
of the gravel will be found to be a source of great 
convenience, and economy also. A bushel of prepared 
gravel usually costs more than a bushel of grain. 

When the gravel is laid in the troughs and the 
water is turned on, they are ready for use, with one 
exception, viz., — 

The Covers. 

I am firmly convinced that hatching troughs should 
be covered. I would not have one without a cover. 
Trout eggs and salmon fry are stronger and healthier 
for being hatched in the dark. It is more natural 
also. The fcetus, or embryo, of almost every creature — 
beast, bird, or fish, everything above insect life — is 
developed in the dark. The embryo of the trout is 
no exception to the rule. After the parent trout has 
deposited its eggs in the bed of the brook, the gravel 
with which they are covered, the stratum of water 
above the gravel, and the layer of ice and snow above 
the water, make it as dark, where the eggs are, as it is 
in the covered hatching-troughs. 

Furthermore, the light seems to have a forcing 
effect on the eggs ; and those that I have seen matured 
in the light did not contain the dark, thick, firm, 



HATCHING APPARATUS. 6:^ 

vigorous-looking embryos that are sure to develop in 
the dark. At all events, my experience has been 
decidedly to the effect that eggs hatched in the dark 
develop a thicker, firmer, and harder fish than those 
hatched in the light; and the first three months of 
feeding proves it. I am sure, at least, that no young 
trout, fry could be hardier or healthier than mine have 
been through their first six months, and all of mine 
are hatched in covered hatching troughs. 

But even if darkness were not desirable, there is 
another reason of the utmost importance for having 
covers on the troughs. It is that you are not certain 
that your eggs are" safe a single night in the open 
troughs. The enemies of trout eggs are legion. 
Mice, snakes, lizards, rats, weasels, and you know not 
what else, may be feeding on the eggs every night if 
they are not covered. I lost thousands of eggs and 
alevin trout in this way, before I began to use covers. 
At the Mirimichi Works, we lost at least twenty thou- 
sand salmon eggs, in the course of two weeks, by a 
weasel, before we began to suspect danger. There is 
no security without covers, at least in ordinary hatching- 
houses. On the contrary, when the covers are on 
and down tight, then, and only then, you k7iow you are 
safe. And this is the only normal condition that any 
department of a trout-breeding establishment should 
ever be in. 

The covers, for convenience' sake, should be made as 
light as possible. Half-inch pine, and even thinner, 
answers very well. There should be a piece cut out 
at the upper end to let in the water, and wire netting 



$4 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

should be tacked over this opening, so that there can 
be no danger of anything getting in there ; and if the 
covers do not fit down tight, they should be hooked 
down, or caught with a spring. When the carpenter 
puts on the covers, examine them carefully, and see 
that there are no chinks to admit even a lizard. If 
there are not, then your hatching boxes are complete 
in every respect, and, if the previous suggestions have 
been carried out, will do their work to your perfect 
satisfaction. 

I have proceeded thus far on the supposition that 
troughs of carbonized wood or other material are used. 
For the guidance of those who prefer glass grilles I 
quote the following remarks upon them from " Harper's 
Magazine " * and from Dr. Slack's Catalogue of fish 
culturist's apparatus. 

" The Coste Hatching Tray (glass grilles) consists of 
a trough (made of earthen-ware, glass, or slate) about 
two feet long, six inches wide, and four inches deep. 
On the inside, about two and a half inches from the 
bottom, are small projections, upon which rests a glass 
grille, a species of gridiron formed of glass tubes, 
placed closely together, the ends being confined in a 
wooden rack. There is a spout on one side and at 
the top of the box to run ofi" the surplus water ; at the 
bottom and below the level of the grille are two other 
openings, usually stopped, but convenient to open in 
order to remove the sediment which fiom time to 
time collects. In using these hatching boxes water 
can be supplied from a water-cooler through a filter, 

* Harper's Magazine, November, i868, pp. 728, 729. 



HATCHING APPARATUS. 65 

and after passing through the box it can be caught 
and used over again. If water has been laid in the 
house, a constant stream of fresh water can be kept 
flowing with less trouble by using a discharge-pipe 
instead of a receiver. In one such box a thousand 
eggs — the product of a single trout — may be hatched. 
It will require no more attention than a globe of gold- 
fish, far less than an aquarium, afford a far more 
interesting study than either, and be quite as much of 
a parlor ornament. 

" If it is desired to experiment more largely, this box 
may be duplicated interminably, as has been done by 
Mr. Coste, in perfecting his apparatus in use at 
Huningue. No greater supply of water and very little 
more room is necessary for a dozen than for one box 
on this plan. The advantages of this apparatus are : 
First, cleanliness, the sediment being easily removed 
without disturbing the eggs ; secondly, the eggs can 
at all times be readily examined ; and thirdly, the fry 
or young fishes can be removed from one box to 
another with facility, thus leaving room for more eggs 
in the first boxes." 

These trays, invented by M. Coste, Professor of 
Embryology in the College of France, have been 
used during the past season at my ponds with perfect 
success, and it is intended in future to hatch all' our 
spawn in them. The boxes are made of the best gal- 
vanized sheet-iron, and are coated inside and out with 
asphalt varnish. The grille is .composed of strong 
glass tubes, firmly fastened in a frame of black walnut. 
This is so arranged that should any of the tubes be- 

E 



66 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

come broken they can be readily removed and others 
substituted. Each box will hatch from one thousand 
to fifteen hundred eggs. 

I'nces of Coste Hatching Trays, 

Single trays ^4.00 

One dozen trays 45 -^o 

Fifty or over, at the rate of 3 -50 

Extra glass tubes (each) -05 

" " " per pound 75 

Flight of Trays with Stand. 

This is a neat and convenient form when several 
trays are required. 

The stands are made of the best seasoned white- 
pine, neatly framed together. 

Prices. . 

Flight of five trays and stand $21.00 

" three " " 13.50 

Stands for five trays 2.50 

" three " 2.00* 

There is another form of grilles used, which has 
stood the test of experience very well. It consists of 
very narrow strips of window-glass, laid side by side 
in the hatching-box, an inch or two from the bottom, 
and closely enough to keep the eggs from falling be- 
tween them, but wide enough apart to allow the 
hatched fish to fall through. Each alternate strip is 

* Dr. Slack's Catalogue of fishes, and apparatus used in fish 
culture, pp. 4, 5. 



HATCHING APPARATUS. 6/ 

placed about an eighth of an inch lower than the rest. 
In this depression the eggs lie until hatched, when the 
young fish fall into the box or trough below. The ad- 
vantage of this class of grilles over the last form is 
that they are cheaper. Another advantage is that 
they can be used in water where too much sediment 
would collect on tight grilles or in troughs, the sedi- 
ment being easily washed off the eggs on the strips, 
and sinking down through the apertures out of the 
way. 



CHAPTER V. 
THE NURSERY. 

THE next use for the water, after it passes over the 
eggs, is for rearing the young fish. 
This department should be arranged with great care, 
as it is here that the trout pass through the most deli- 
cate portion of their lives, and require the most vigi- 
lant attention. Hatching trout is easy enough, and so 
is the growing of them, after they are a year old. But 
to bring them through the first year, and especially 
the first six months, is a more difficult matter. This 
was the snag on which the earlier trout-breeding enter- 
prisers were wrecked, and it is here that the greatest 
losses have occurred with most trout breeders at all 
times. This has been the one weak point of trout- 
raising, and those who have succeeded in all other 
points have often failed here. It is obvious, then, 
that it is very important to have this department just 

right. 

The Water. 

The water coming from the hatching-troughs should 
have considerable fall before it enters upon this part 
of its work, and the more the better, up to the height 
of three feet, especially if any young fish are still kept 
in the troughs. 

If it is proposed to raise the young fry in a pond, 



THE NURSERY. 69 

then nothing needs to be done with the water but to 
let it flow into the pond in the way most natural to it ; 
but if boxes or tanks are used to raise the young 
fish in, then it is desirable to collect together all 
the water from the various troughs into a common 
reservoir, or at least into a common aqueduct, from 
which to draw, in the quantities needed, for the supply 
of the rearing boxes. 

Leaving the water here, we will enter at once upon 
the discussion of the methods of rearing the young fry. 

The methods are two in number, — i. By the use of 
ponds ; and 2, by the use of rearing boxes or nurseries. 
Of these two methods the rearing boxes are by far 
the safest for the first two or three months. I do not 
deny that satisfactory results have been obtained from 
the use of ponds at this stage, but I regard these as 
the exceptions. They were ponds peculiarly adapted 
to the wants of the young fry. As a rule, not one pond 
in ten, nor one in twenty, is safe for the very young fry. 

Ponds, when contrasted with rearing boxes, present 
the following points of comparison. 

I. As soon as the young fish are put into the pond 
they scatter to all parts of it, and cannot be brought 
together to feed. The consequence is that many get 
away into corners or holes, become weak from want of 
food, and die, while nineteen twentieths of the food 
fed to the fry in the pond is wasted, and only serves 
to foul the water. In rearing boxes the fish are all 
kept compactly together, where they are evenly fed, 
and where, owing to their being compact, almost all 
the food is consumed. 



70 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

2. In ponds the young fish are exposed to all their 
enemies, whose name is Legion. Without enumerating 
them all again, it is sufficient to say that birds, frogs, 
and snakes will depopulate a pond of young trout with 
surprising despatch. 

Rearing boxes being so prepared that when the lid 
is shut down nothing can get in and nothing get out, 
the safety of the fish is by this arrangement immeas- 
urably increased. 

3. In ponds the green Co?tfervcB (frog-spittle) may 
grow. If it does, it will probably cost you a great 
many fish. It will not trouble you in the rearing box. 

4. The comparatively still water of ponds is often 
unfavorable to the young fry inclined to be sickly. 
This objection is obviated in the rearing box. 

5. In ponds there are likely to be unnoticed crevi- 
ces, — at least, more than in rearing boxes, — where 
the young fry often escape without your knowledge. 
In rearing boxes perfect security can be obtained in 
this respect. 

6. Dangers sometimes exist in ponds for weeks un- 
noticed. In rearing boxes the trout and the whole 
apparatus are so wholly under your eye that perfect 
security from this source, also, may be acquired. 

7. When in ponds, you cannot keep account of the 
numbers of the fish without much trouble. When in 
rearing boxes, they can be taken out at a moment's 
notice, and counted; 

Seth Green suggests that the hatching troughs be used 
until the fish are large enough for ponds ; this, he says, 
saves one removal. This may answer sometimes, but 
it is open to these objections : — 



THE NURSERY. 7 1 

a. The hatching-house water is too cold and earthy^ 
if I may use the expression. 

b. If other hatching troughs work hke mine, the 
screens will clog up, and call for extra watching. 

c. The fish must be very much thinned out to make 
this method work, and in this case the one removal is 
not saved. 

d. The fry do not do so well, in actual practice, in 
the troughs, as they do in the tearing boxes. I may 
also add that Green's partner, Mr. Collins, sent last 
spring for my rearing box to use at Caledonia. 

My experience has all been one way in this mat- 
ter. I have tried all kinds of ponds for very young 
fry, and in every instance have lost most of them, 
while in rearing boxes in most instances I have had 
surprising success, the loss having been very small 
indeed. 

I am aware that the experience of others has been 
different, and that they have found ponds more suc- 
cessful than boxes ; but I repeat, that I think the ponds 
were exceptions, and that nineteen ponds out of 
twenty are not safe for the very young fry. 

The use of rearing boxes is accordingly recom- 
mended, in preference to ponds, for the very young 
fish. 

The principles of the rearing box will be described 
in the next few pages. 

REARING BOXES. 

A rearing box in its simplest form is very simple ; a 
common soap or candle box, with a wire screen at 



"JZ DOMESTiqATED TROUT. 

one end, and some gravel on the bottom, with a stream 
.of water running through, is a rearing box, and will 
do, if only a hundred or two young fry are to be 
raised. 

A rearing box in its most perfect form is a more 
elaborate and complicated thing, and should combine 
these points,"* viz. : — 

1. A fall of water. 

2. A current of water. 

3. Protection against too forcible suction through 
the outlet screen. 

4. Security from overflow. 

5. Absence of fixed hiding-places. 

6. Compactness of fish themselves for feeding. 

7. Protection against outside enemies. 

8. Perfectly tight joints. 

9. Protection against fungus. 

1. A fall of water. The very young fry need all 
the vitality and freshness which can be given to the 
water ; and that imparted to it by a fall immediately 
above them is too valuable to be disregarded. Ex- 
perience has proved, also, that all trout do best just 
below a fall of water. 

2. A current. If you want to make hardy fish, give 
the young fry a current to head up against ; this is not 
only more natural, but it will keep them clean and 
vigorous, while in (relatively) still water they will often 
take on a fungus growth or fin disease, which will 

* It should be added here, that ponds for young fry should, as 
far as possible, be constructed on the same general principles that 
are recommended for rearing boxes. 



THE NURSERY. 73 

finally kill them. Again, by compelling the young 
fish to head up against a current, you not only keep 
them healthy, but can even sometimes save their lives 
when they have become sickly, and would otherwise 
have died. 

The way to raise hardy, healthy trout is to put the 
young fry in a current, and keep them strong enough, 
by feeding, to make them feel like heading up 
against it. 

3. Protection against too forcible suction through the 
outlet. If the pressure against the screen is too vio- 
lent, the fish will be sucked against it, and cannot 
keep off. A very wide screen is the protection against 
this, or, if necessary, a dead-water board, nailed on 
below the screen. 

4, Security from overflow. When sudden showers 
come up, especially in the early summer, the streams 
will collect so much fine floating matter as to clog up 
the screens very rapidly. 

A very little of the green Confervce^ sometimes 
called frog-spittle, will give a great deal of trouble 
from this cause. Various other circumstances also 
make it important to take especial pains to guard 
against an overflow. This is accomplished by having 
deep sides to the rearing box, and by the use of wide 
screens. Sometimes, in order to obtain perfect secur- 
ity, it is found necessary to insert a long narrow screen 
in the side of the box, near the top, called a safety 
screen. This, with the regular screen at the outlet, 
will usually take the water off sufficiently fast when it 
rises to the safety-screen level. 



74 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

5. Absence of fixed hiding-places. Such hiding-places 
are bad, because in general you do not know what the 
fish are doing in them. They may be dying there. 
They may be crowding in them too thickly. The 
hiding-places may conceal a snake, or a frog, or a 
cannibal trout, which is making deadly havoc with 
the small fish. The best rule for hiding-places 
is, not to have them fixed, but so that you can 
always remove the shelter, and look in if you 
wish ; then you will know what is going on in 
them. 

6. Compactness of the fish themselves for feeding. This 
I regard as a very important point. When the very 
young fry are scattered widely apart, you are obliged 
to feed them at a great disadvantage. 

Only a few can be got together in a spot to feed. 
Sometimes they are so shy that they can only be fed 
at all with great difficulty, and, with the best you can 
do, nineteen twentieths of the food will go to the bot- 
tom. On the contrary, when the fish are compactly 
confined, their numbers seem to give them confidence, 
and they do not attempt to run away from the food. 
They will gather together to get it, instead of scatter- 
ing as before ; and, being so thick together, they will 
consume nearly all the food given them, and very little 
will go to the bottom. The advantage gained by this 
is very great. 

7. Protection against outside e7ie?nies. The necessity 
of this protection is obvious. It is obtained by at- 
taching to the rearing box a wire-work lid, fitting 
down tightly, and provided with a padlock. 



THE NURSERY. 75 

It is necessary to have even the opening where the 
water falls in protected by a wire screen. 

One autumn I lost several hundreds of fine trout, 
three inches long, by something, I never knew what, 
entering the boxes where the water came in. 

The cover can be made of wooden slats, if preferred ; 
but they should be very close, for snakes, which are 
very destructive to young fish when confined, will ven- 
ture through holes which are big enough to admit 
their bodies. 

8. Perfectly tight joijits. Only a person who has 
had many years' experience in raising young fish 
knows the whole significance of this precaution. The 
knack which young trout have of going through very 
small crevices is almost incredible. I once made a 
solid bank of fine hatching gravel a foot long, to hold 
some young fry. In a week three hundred had found 
their way through it. I venture to say that there is 
not a trout breeder who reads this page, who has not 
lost more or less young fry, through some unnoticed 
crevice in their place of confinement. 

It seems as if they had the gift of flattening them- 
selves almost indefinitely. At all events, they will 
squeeze through a wonderfully small crevice, so that 
the only safe way is to examine the box or trough 
thoroughly and make every joint perfectly tight. If 
this cannot be done effectually with hammer and nails, 
the places should be calked with flannel, or something 
similar. The outlet screen should be as fine as eigh- 
teen threads to the inch. With anything larger than 
that, the fry will get their bodies through, and hang 
themselves by the neck. 



y6 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

9. Protection against ftmgiis. Last, but not least, 
there should be no possibility of fungus getting 
on to the young fish. I wish I could find words to 
describe how infectious and how fatal this ubiquitous 
enemy is to trout. If they are exposed to it, it will 
attack their fins, gills, and every part of them, and, 
long before they begin to show it by dying, it may 
have spread over your whole brood, and rendered 
them past saving even when its presence is first dis- 
covered. I have known instances where persons have 
found their trout dying, and upon moving them to 
other places, and taking every pains with them, have 
wondered why they continued to die, with everything 
apparently favorable to their health, while the fact was 
that the fatal fungus had fastened upon them and 
doomed them to death days, perhaps weeks, before 
they were first moved. You cannot take too much 
pains to avoid fungus. The best way to do it — and 
it is a sure way — is to char the inner surface of all 
the woodwork leading to the rearing-boxes, and also 
the rearing boxes themselves. This is a sure preventa- 
tive, and the only satisfactory one I know of 

The above points should be secured * in the rearing 
box for the young fry, and when they are so secured, 
if the water supply is right, the box may be regarded 
as a suitable place for growing them in the first two 
or three months, and much safer, as a general thing, 
than a pond. I should call the maximum water 
supply, just that amount which the fish will bear 

* It was to combine these points that the rearing box of the 
Cold Spring Trout Ponds was contrived. 



THE NURSERY. * ']^ 

without being carried down with it. The minimum 
supply for very young fish is less than one would 
suppose. 

A cold stream throwing one hundred gallons an 
hour will keep ten thousand alive, with a proper fall 
and current ; but this minimum should not be resorted 
to except in cases of necessity. 

If you have a large number of fry to raise in rearing 
boxes, build a platform where you want the boxes. 

Make all the boxes of the same size.* Place them 
in a line, side by side^ have your distributing-spout 
just over the upper end of the boxes, and draw the 
water from it just as you draw the water from the dis- 
tributing spout in the house into the hatching troughs. 
This gives uniformity and system, and increases the 
convenience of feeding and taking care of the fish. 

Place a layer of gravel in each of the boxes in such 
a way that the water will be deepest under the fall, and 
the bed of the boxes will slope up towards the outlet. 
Provide water-plants as freely as you please. Below 
the system of rearing boxes place a long trap-box, with 
a screen, which will catch everything that escapes from 
them by accident. 

Then your arrangem.ent for growing the young fish 
by this method will be complete. 

If ponds are used, they should be shallow, narrow, 
very tight, and should be well stocked with water- 

* Four feet long by sixteen inches wide and sixteen inches 
deep is a good §ize. 

It is a good plan to widen the outlet and to admit a larger 
screen, say twenty-eight by sixteen inches. 



78 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

plants,* which will improve the water and give the 
fish a chance to hide from their enemies, and supply 
them with a good deal of natural food. 

The ponds should be also well provided with covers 
or rafts for shelter. 

Even then I would have the ponds constructed on 
the principle of rearing-boxes, but I wish it distinctly- 
understood only for very young fry. I am myself in 
favor of turning the fish into safe ponds after they are 
two or three months old, but not before. 

They are so small and frail at first, that it seems to 
me no better than destroying them by wilful neglect 
to turn them loose into ponds when they begin to feed. 

* See Appendix III., pp. 274, 275, for list of water-plants. 



PART II. 

PROCESSES IN TROUT BREEDING. 



PROCESSES IN TROUT BREEDING. 



CHAPTER I. 
TAKING THE EGGS.* 

Introduction. 

WE now turn from the construction of the works 
required by the processes of trout breeding to 
the processes themselves. The first in order of these 
is, taking spawn. This is a department of the trout- 
breeder's work which it is very important to under- 
stand thoroughly, for it depends on his success here 
whether he secures most of the increase of his breed- 
ing stock, or whether he loses most of it. A careless 
and unskilful person will not save over twenty per 
cent. A careful and skilful operator will not lose five 
per cent. The reader can see for himself what a vast 
difference this makes, when hundreds of thousands, or 
even millions, are the numbers dealt with. 

This branch of the work is no child's play. It 
constitutes an art by itself, and requires, for its 
success, knowledge, proficiency, and skill. Do not 
neglect to give this department careful study. - 

* For description of eggs, see p. io6. For number of eggs, 
see pp. 267, 268. For spawning season of different fish, see 
pp. 270, 271. 

4* 



S2 DOMESTICATED TROUT, 



Preparations for the Spawning. 

It is very desirable to have the preparations for the 
spawning season completed before the season begins, 
as it is often very inconvenient to attend to them after- 
wards. The hatching apparatus and experiment boxes, 
the filtering tank, and all the aqueducts above the 
hatching apparatus, should be thoroughly cleaned out 
and put in readiness. The spring or supply reservoir 
should be put in just the condition you mean to have 
it left in for the winter, for that often cannot be dis- 
turbed after the spawn are laid. The gravel for hatch- 
ing should be obtained, sifted and washed and boiled, 
two sets of flannel filters made, and ready to place, 
and the outlet screens ready to drop in their grooves. 
A set of nippers and a bunch of feathers should be in 
their places, as also homoeopathic phials for examin- 
ing the eggs, the spawning pans for taking them in, 
moss to pack them with, and the tin boxes in which to 
send them away. 

At the breeding ponds, the spawning races should 
be thoroughly cleaned out, and clean gravel put in, 
or the Ainsworth and the Collins apparatus * placed in 
readiness where these are used. A notice should be 
put up that visitors must not go to the breeding 
grounds till the season is over. The covers for the 
spawning beds should be ready and down. The nets 
and the rest of the spawning outfit should be at hand, 

* For description of the Ainsworth and the Collins Spawning 
Apparatus, see pp. 29 - 36. 



TAKING THE EGGS. 83 

and yourself free to attend to the spawning as soon 
as the season begins. 

The Spawning Season. 

As the cold fall days come on, the male trout take 
on brighter colors, the lower rays of the anal and 
ventral fins show brilliantly white, their bodies grow 
lank, their noses sharp, and there is an unmistakable 
air of expectancy in their whole expression, peculiar to 
this period. The females grow big with spawn, and 
lose some of the brightness of their color, though 
their forms still retain a grace which does not leave 
them till the eggs are deposited. You need not 
have any fear about telling the sexes apart. After a 
very little experience, you can hardly make a mistake 
in this particular, at this season. The brief descrip- 
tion just given will be a sufficient guide. 

Some time before any eggs are deposited, both 
sexes become indifferent to food, and work up into 
the shallow swifter water below the spawning beds, 
the males usually in advance. By the second week 
in October, and sometimes before, in the mean latitude 
of New England, a few stragglers, like advance skir- 
mishers, will get into the beds and begin making their 
nests. The exciting season of taking spawn is now 
close at hand, and as soon as you perceive that the 
fish on the beds have completed their nests, you may, 
if you adopt the artificial method of taking the eggs, 
proceed to try whether they are ripe.* 

* For directions for collecting the eggs obtained by the 
"natural " method, see remarks about Ainsworth's Screens and 
Collins's Roller Spawning-Box, pp. 29 - 36. 



84 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

The method of capturing the spawning fish is as 
follows : A net of coarse bagging, six or eight feet 
long, is made. The edges of the upper end of the 
bag are fastened to a common wooden screen frame, 
which then forms the mouth of it. This frame fits 
into grooves made for it, at the lower end of the 
spawning beds. The other or closed end of the bag 
is made to taper somewhat, and an opening, say fif- 
teen inches in length, is cut in it to let the fish 
through into the spawning tub. This is to avoid 
pouring them out from the upper end. This aperture 
is tied up with a string before the bag is put in posi- 
tion, and a large tub to receive the fish is placed on 
the ground close to the outlet of the spawning bed, 
where the bag will be placed. 

Now, having brought spawning pans enough to take 
the spawn in, you approach the beds carefully with 
the bagging in your hands. You slip the frame at the 
mouth of the bag instantly into the grooves prepared 
for it, and the spawning fish are trapped. You now, 
with as little delay as possible, fill the tub half full 
of water. Keep the spawning pans perfectly dry, place 
them conveniently, and throw off the covers of the beds. 

The fish, with a little urging, will rush down stream 
and hide in the bag. When they are all in, raise the 
bag up quickly but gently, drop the lower end into 
the tub of water, untie the string, and let them out. 
If you have many fish and an attendant to help you, 
it is a good plan to have two pails of water at hand, 
and to have your attendant, while you are taking the 
spawn, sort the males into one pail and the females 



TAKING THE EGGS. S$ 

into another, so that you can always lay your hand 
instantly on the sex you want. Having got everything 
ready and the fish into the tub, the next thing is to 
take the fish out and strip them. 

The first point to learn about this is how to handle 
the fish. There are almost as many ways of handling 
them as there are persons who practise it. Almost 
every one has a way, or at least a peculiarity, of his 
own. 

My own way is to close the left hand very gently 
over the face of the fish, and with the right grasp it 
just above the tail. It is now not necessary to 
squeeze the fish hard at all. She cannot get through 
either hand, because the body is larger in the middle 
than at either extremity. I then take the fish quickly 
out of the water, throw it over partly on its side, and 
holding it at an angle of about 45°, with the orifice 
near the bottom of the pan, press gently but firmly with 
the thumb of the left hand, on the upper part of the 
abdomen. If the fish is ripe, the eggs will flow at 
once, and then, by a peculiar bending of the body of 
the fish, together with a slight downward movement 
of the thumb, the eggs will come almost of their own 
accord. I use very little force indeed in pressing the 
eggs out. If they do not come almost spontaneously, 
with this method of handling, I let the fish go and try 
another. If any eggs seem to be left in the fish after 
the stripping just mentioned, I quickly change hands, 
and, grasping it firmly with the right hand, remove the 
remaining eggs by a gentle pass of the left thumb 
along the length of the abdomen. 



86 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

This strips the fish completely, and it is ready to 
be returned to the water. I proceed in a similar 
way with the male, except that I exert the pressure 
lower down the abdomen than with the female. This 
method of handling does not hurt the fish ; it seems 
to make the eggs flow spontaneously, the struggling 
of the fish only accelerates the flow of the eggs, it 
makes quick work and takes all the eggs. I do not 
claim anything for it, however, over other good 
methods of handling, and would advise beginners to 
try different ways, till they find the particular way 
most convenient for them, and adopt that. 

Holding the fish is at first an awkward affair. It 
»will seem to you, if you are a beginner, as if fish were 
never so slippery nor so uneasy, and never so liable 
to be squeezed to death before ; but practice will make 
perfect in this as in other things, and you will at 
length feel as much at home with a pound trout in 
your hands as if it were a pet kitten. 

I would, however, by all means kill and open a 
trout first, and see just how the vitals lie packed 
within, so as to know just where you can press without 
hurting it, and just where you cannot. This will give 
you confidence, and save the lives of many fish. 

You can press quite hard on the face and head, and 
on the solid parts of the body, but be very careful of 
the gills and vitals. Do not ever press the abdomen 
very hard. If the eggs do not come with a light pressure, 
let them go till next time. You might not impregnate 
them all, if you took them. Do not press the female 
fish af all near the organ of exit, or lower part of the 



TAKING THE EGGS. 8/ 

abdomen, except to push out the few remaining eggs, 
after the main part of the stripping is done. Let all 
the pressure at first be at the upper end, and always 
let the thumb folloiv the eggs, and never get in ad- 
vance of them. Inflammation of the organs at the 
lower part of the abdomen is often produced by neg- 
lect of this precaution, the result of which is an entire 
stoppage of eggs and ultimate death from ulceration. 

When the fish struggles, as you are taking the 
spawn, do not squeeze it any harder than you can 
help, but hold your left thumb firmly on the abdomen, 
just above the eggs, and the struggles of the fish will 
only help the flow of the eggs. Indeed. I usually try to 
make the fish really spawn herself 

You must keep your attention fixed incessantly on 
the fish in your hands, or it will squirm itself out of your 
grasp when you least expect it, and in a way that you 
cannot account for. You will probably drop a few fish 
occasionally, even after some experience, but it will do 
no harm if the fish does not fall into the spawning 
dish. This you must guard against, as a few lashes 
of its body then may kill a great many eggs. Be 
careful also not to let the trout in its struggles scrape 
the slime off its body ; for this, especially in the first 
part of the season, will cause fungus to grow, and the 
end is death. 

Impregnating the Eggs. 

All fish eggs were formerly impregnated in water, a 
depth of one or two inches in the spawning pans being 
generally used. This was the universal custom in this 



S8 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

country up to the last spawning season, that of 187 1, 
in the summer of which year, through the efforts of 
Mr. George Shephard Page, the experiments of M. 
Vrasski, at Nikolsk, Russia, were made known in 
America.* By these experiments the very singular 
facts were discovered that fish eggs could not only be 

* " In his experiments, M. Vrasski had followed the counsel^ 
given in French and German works on pisciculture ; but the 
results obtained were far from being brilliant. In reality he 
obtained at each hatching but an insignificant number. ' From 
many thousands of eggs,' said he, in one of his letters, ' there 
were only some dozens of young fry. The rest of the eggs were 
spoilt and lost for want of having been impregnated. I have, 
however, observed with scrupulous exactness all the directions 
given by the manuals with a view to fecundation.' In the 
autumn of 1856, M. Vrasski was occupied with the microscopic 
study of the eggs and the milt, and kept a journal in which he 
registered the least circumstances and incidents relative to each 
fecundation that he effected. Two months of persistent efforts 
brought the desired results. The journal and the microscope 
proved to him that the cause of his failure proceeded precisely 
from the exact observation of all the counsels of the foreign 
manuals. It is necessary for fecundation that the spermatozoa 
of the milt of the male should penetrate the eggs of the female. 
In order to do this, the manuals recommended receiving the 
eggs in a vessel of water ; afterwards, to receive in another ves- 
sel of water the milt of the male ; and, lastly, to turn the diluted 
milt on to the eggs. By his journal, kept with scrupulous exact- 
ness, M. Vrasski convinced himself that the fecundation was so 
much the less complete according as the mixture of the milt 
and the eggs had been the most delayed. If ten minutes elapsed 
between obtaining the milt and the mixing of it with the eggs, 
the fecundation failed almost entirely. His observations and the 
microscopic researches of the eggs and the milt showed that 
first, when received in water at the instant of issuing from the 
fish, the eggs absorb the water and preserve the power of being 



TAKING THE EGGS. 89 

taken and impregnated safely in a dry vessel, but also 
that the whole of them could be impregnated in this 
way. Such marvellous success had never been reached 
before by any method, sixty-five or seventy per cent 
having been a large average of impregnation, in opera- 
tions in this country, and Seth Green, who approxi- 

impregnated only as long as this absorption is not finished ; that 
is to say, during a half-hour at the utmost. Once saturated with 
water, the eggs do not absorb any spermatozoa ; but if received 
into dry vessels on issuing from the fish, the eggs remain, on 
the contrary, for a sufficient time, in a neutral state, and do not 
lose the power, when once put into water, of receiving the 
spermatozoa. Second, the spermatozoa of the milt, in falling 
into the water, commence immediately, with much vigor and 
rapidity, to make movements, which only last, however, for a 
minute and a half, or two at the most ; when this time is elapsed, 
only in some few spermatozoa can there be seen particular move- 
ments and agonized convulsions. When, at the issuing from the 
male fish, the milt is received in a dry vessel, it does not change 
for many hours, and during this interval the spermatozoa do not 
lose the power of beginning to move when they find themselves 
in contact with water. Closed in a dry tube and well corked, 
the milt preserved its impregnating virtue during six days. 

" From these observations, as also from the fact that the eggs, 
as well as the milt, are obtained slowly, their entire mass not 
being able to issue at once, M. Vrasski arrived at the conclusion 
that when they were received in water the greater part of the 
eggs attempted to saturate themselves with water, and the 
spermatozoa almost ceased to move before it was possible for 
the fish breeder to mix the eggs with the diluted water. M. 
Vrasski adopted then the system of dry vessels, and turned the 
milt on the eggs immediately he put them in water. The success 
was complete ; all the eggs were impregnated, without one 
exception." — " The Establishment at Nikolsk for the Rearing of 
Choice Fish." Review in New York Citizen and Round Table, 
May 27, 1871. 



90 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

mated the method of the Russian by using a very Httle 
water, never claiming over ninety-five per cent for his 
best work. The result is that dry impregnation, or the 
method of taking the eggs in dry vessels, has in trout 
culture wholly superseded the old practice of impreg- 
nating the eggs in water, among all who have heard 
of it, the great gain in impregnated eggs being too 
much of an advantage to be sacrificed. 

For the benefit of those to whom this part of the 
subject is unfamiliar, I will say that the milt, or 
seminal fluid, of the male fish consists of innumerable 
living microscopic organisms, called spermatozoa or 
zoosperms. These millions of infinitesimal creatures 
during their brief career in the outer world are endowed 
with great activity, and jump and plunge about among 
one another with a motion as ceaseless as it is rapid 
and vigorous. They appear all the while to be seeking 
something. At the same time, the eggs, when taken 
from the fish, exert a constant absorbing power, draw- 
ing towards them everything in their immediate vicinity. 
The eggs also possess on their surface a microscopic 
opening called the micropyle, which is intended for 
the entrance of the zoosperm. When, therefore, the 
spermatozoa and the eggs are brought together, the 
animalculae seek the egg with all their might, and the 
egg draws them to itself with all its power. The con- 
sequence is that one (or more ?) of the spermatozoa 
finds the micropyle of the egg and is drawn into it, 
and impregnation is the result. 

When the egg has finished its absorbing action, 
or when the zoosperms have become inert, the power 



TAKING THE EGGS. 9 1 

to give or receive impregnation is at an end. The 
time for it has passed. No human power can after- 
wards make milt or eggs anything but worthless. 

It has been estimated that the absorbing action of 
the trout egg lasts thirty minutes in water. The period 
of the activity of spermatozoa in water has been vari- 
ously placed at thirty minutes, fifteen, ten, two, and 
one and a half minutes ;* the last two estimates being 
nearest the truth. As will be seen by reference to M. 
Vrasski's experiments, this period of activity is vastly 
prolonged by not diluting the milt with water, and the 
chances of impregnating all the eggs are immensely 
increased in consequence. For, according to the old 
method of using water, either the spermatozoa died or 
the eggs finished their absorbing process before there 
was time for all the eggs to become impregnated ; 
while by the new method of not using water the milt 
has ample time to come in contact with all the eggs, 
during the period of the activity of the one and the 

* The confusion on this point very probably arises from the 
experiments being conducted in different temperatures of water, 
the period of life of the zoosperms depending materially on the 
temperature of the water. The zoosperms of trout milt do not 
usually live over two minutes in water varying from 40° to 
50° F. 

Quatrefages's experiments showed that the activity of the sper- 
matozoa of different fish diluted with water lasted in the case of 
the 

Brochet ... 8 minutes, 10 seconds. 

Mullet . . . 3 " 10 " ' 

Carp . . . 3 " 

Perch . . . . 2 " 40 " 

Barbel . . . 2 " 10 " 



92 



DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



absorbing action of the other.* The consequent ad- 
vantage is obvious. 

This discovery being of great practical importance, 
perhaps I may be excused for quoting at length from 
my editorial on the subject in the New York Citizen 
and Round Table of March 9, 1872. 

THE RUSSIAN OR DRY METHOD OF IMPREGNATION. 

" The most important discovery of the past year in 
fish-breeding in this country was the method of the 
dry impregnation of the eggs of winter-spawning fish. 

" Its importance consists in this, namely, that almost 
one hundred per cent of the eggs can be fertilized 
and hatched in this way, while hitherto, wdth the one 
exceptional instance of our great prophet, Seth Green, 

* The following table shows the percentage of Salmon eggs 
impregnated by the dry method at the Maine State Salmon- 
Breeding Establishment, in 1871, under the charge of Commis- 
sioner Charles G. Atkins, of Maine. 



When taken. 


Estimated no. of eggs. 


Percentage fecundated. 


Nov. 2 


12,500 


100 


" 3 


11,500 


94^ 


" 6 


9,500 


922 


" 6 


3,000 


85 


" 4 


300 


— 


" 4 


2,500 


95 


. " 4 


16,000 


96 


" 7 


5,000 


100 


" 8 


4,500 


100 


" 9 


7,000 


97|- 


" 10 


85 


100 


" 10 


50 


100 


" 10 


365 


100 




72,300 


96 



TAKING THE EGGS. 93 

the percentage has ranged all the way from ninety 
and eighty to fifteen, and has probably not averaged 
throughout the country over fifty or sixty per cent.* 
The gain, of course, is enormous, as will be seen by 
the following table : — 

The average yield of By the old method. By the new method. 

1,000 eggs is 600 950 

10,000 eggs is 6,000 9)5oo 

100,000 eggs is 60,000 95,000 

1,000,000 eggs is 600,000 950,000 

" When to this is added the consideration that all 
the worthless eggs must be picked out one by one, by 
hand, in the coldest season of the year, and that to 
pick out three hundred and fifty thousand eggs (the 
difference in each million between the two methods) 
requires, in practice, at least thirty-fiv^e days of inces- 
sant and tedious labor, the immense advantage and 
importance of the new discovery becomes obvious. 

" It will mark a new era, we are confident, in trout 
and salmon breeding, and will entirely revolutionize 
the system of impregnating the eggs of these fish. No 
one, hereafter, who has heard of the new method, will 
ever take the eggs of any cold-water fish by the old 
one. It is a very significant circumstance that Seth 
Green, with his wonderful insight, reached the same 
result nearly ten years ago by using a very small 
amount of water in the impregnating pan. 

* There is not the same difference in impregnating the eggs 
of warm-water fish. Perch and shad, for instance, will yield 
nearly one hundred per cent good eggs taken in a pan full of 
water, the natural temperature of which, when these fish spawn, 
runs from a minimum of 50° F. with the perch to a maximum of 
90°, and even more, with the shad. 



94 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

" This was the mysterious secret of his success in 
impregnating trout eggs, which puzzled beyond measure 
everybody that tried to imitate him, which every one 
marvelled at, and no one could understand. Green 
used to tell everything about trout breeding except 
this, but this he kept to himself, and said it was as 
good as a patent right to him ; and so it was. 

" The Russian or dry method of impregnating eggs 
consists simply in taking both the eggs and the milt 
in a dry pan. The pan will not, correctly speaking, 
be perfectly dry, for some drops of water will fall into 
it from the fishes manipulated ; but the pan should 
have no water in it to begin with. In reflecting upon 
this method for the first time, the objection rises 
instantly in one's mind that the eggs will all be killed 
by striking against the bottom of the dry pan ; but it 
is the very singular fact that though the same eggs 
would be destroyed at once by the same concussion 
a week afterwards, or even twenty-four hours after- 
wards, they do not suffer in the least from it at the 
moment of extrusion from the fish. These and the pre- 
vious facts here stated were confirmed this last season 
by experiments of Commissioner Atkins of Maine, of 
Mr. W. Clift of Connecticut, and of the writer in New 
Hampshire, and are beyond dispute. 

" At the last meeting of the Fish Culturists' Associa- 
tion, at Albany, we opened a box of about a hundred 
trout eggs, taken by us on the Russian plan last 
December, and gathered afterwards from the hatching 
troughs without our knowledge of the percentage of 
impregnation. Seth Green and others examined them, 



TAKING THE EGGS. 95 

and only three 'were found empty. As less than two 
per cent had been picked out previously from the 
troughs, this leaves ninety-five per cent of good eggs. 

" The explanation of the augmented impregnation 
seems to lie in the following facts : — 

"The spermatozoa of the milt of the male are found 
naturally living in an alkaline fluid composed partly 
of phosphates and partly of other constituents which 
more scientific men know better than we do. This is 
their natural element, and, if it is not changed, they 
will live in it for several days after leaving the fish. On 
the contrary, if this liquid is diluted with water, as is 
the case in the old way of impregnating, the sperma- 
tozoa are killed ; they cannot live in the new element. 
Paradoxical as it seems, water drowns them. 

" M. Vrasski says that he kept the spermatozoa 
alive six days in a corked-up phial just as they came 
from the fish, but that they died in two minutes when 
taken from the fish into water. 

" With a view to testing these points, we tried some 
experiments with the milt of trout last fall, using a 
microscope that magnified a hundred diameters. The 
results were the same. 

*' Milt taken from the fish in a phial and secluded 
from the air and water remained unchanged for days. 
Carbolic acid killed the zoosperms almost immediately, 
and water drowned them in two minutes. 

" The explanation, therefore, of the improved results 
of the Russian method, is plainly seen. The zoosperms 
reach the eggs in their natural element, and have time 
and vitality to impregnate them, while they are at the 



96 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

same time in vastly greater numbers to the cubic line 
than in the pan of water. 

"The dry method of taking eggs was first discovered 
by M. Vrasski, a Russian, from whom it is called the 
Russian method. He experimented with the eggs 
of sterlits, we believe, at Nikolsk, Russia, and by 
careful and scrupulous observation with microscope 
and note-book solved in two months the mystery of 
the previous meagre impregnations, and made this 
most important discovery of which we are speaking. 

" It is very singular that sixteen years should have 
elapsed before the knowledge of this remarkable 
discovery should have reached America. But sixteen 
years did pass, and many more might have passed 
had it not been for the enterprise of Mr. George Shep- 
hard Page, President of the Oquossoc Angling Associa- 
tion, who had the experiments of M. Vrasski translated 
into English, and who caused a review of his work to 
be printed in the New York Citizen of May 27, 1871, 
which we would recommend all practical fish culturists 
to read. 

" To Mr. Page, therefore, belongs the honor of intro- 
ducing into this country this discovery, second to none, 
in practical importance, that has been made in the art 
since its inception, and to the New York Citizen the 
credit of first making it public. We were very much 
surprised that the announcement in the Citizen did 
not make a deeper impression at the time than it did. 
Mr. Page was kind enough to send us a marked copy 
of the paper, and we wrote to him in reply that the 
statement of M. Vrasski, if true, would wholly revolu- 



I 



TAKING THE EGGS. 9/ 

tionize the present method of impregnating eggs ; but 
no one with whom we corresponded seemed to reaUze 
its importance, except Mr. Clift, President of the 
American Fish Culturists' Association, who wrote to 
us in very much the same terms that we used to Mr. 
Page. It was also by his recommendation, we pre- 
sume, that Mr. Atkins adopted this method in taking 
his salmon eggs last fall. . We are satisfied, however, 
that the results of the investigations of M. Vrasski 
are of the utmost importance, and that the facts 
cannot make too deep an impression on fish breeders. 
We would advise them never to try the old plan again." 

There are several interesting consequences result- 
ing from the Russian discovery which seem to be 
worth mentioning. 

One is that since the spermatozoa of the milt remain 
alive several days when kept from the air and water, 
a cross can be effected between fish living at long dis- 
tances apart, without transporting the fish. For in- 
stance, a trout breeder in Kansas can bottle up some 
milt from his fish in a homoeopathic phial, and send it 
by mail or express to a Massachusetts breeder, who 
can take a ripe spawner from his ponds and mix the 
Kansas milt and Massachusetts eggs in the impreg- 
nating pan, and so generate a cross between the two 
fish, as well as if the Kansas breeder had sent him, at 
a great risk, some male trout. The great ease with 
which this crossing can be accomplished may some 
day lead to valuable results. 

Another consequence is that the old theory that a 
large proportion of the eggs ordinarily taken from the 
5 G 



98 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

spawning trout are immature, and therefore cannot 
be impregnated, must be given up. I have opposed 
this theory all through my trout-breeding experience, 
and insisted that the trouble in poor impregnations 
was not in the eggs, but in the milt, as it has now 
turned out to be. But the immature-egg theory had 
its advocates in high quarters, and has been very gen- 
erally received. There, however, can be no question 
about it hereafter. If ninety-five per cent of the eggs 
. are impregnated and hatched by the Russian method, 
then not more than five per cent of the eggs are 
immature, and we doubt if even this small proportion 
are. 

The Russian discovery also wholly sets aside the 
question about which there has been such contradic- 
tory opinions, as to whether the milt or the eggs should 
be taken first. Under the old regime it was considered 
an important matter, and so it was ; but now it makes 
no difference which is used first, as, either way, both 
the milt and the eggs will remain operative long 
enough for all practical purposes of impregnation, and 
in both cases the results will be the same. 

In consequence of the discovery that all mature eggs 
are impregnated c)y coming in contact with ripe milt, 
the fish, both male and female, being taken at random, 
we are compelled to admit, however unwillingly, that 
the origin of fish life, in artificial impregnation at least, 
is wholly a mechanical affair. The mere mechanical 
mixing of the ripe milt of any male and the ripe eggs 
of any female creates the germ of life, and perpetuates 
the race, all previous considerations of pairing off 



TAKING THE EGGS. 99 

among the fish, or of this or that one selecting its mate, 
counting for nothing. The fish of either sex has no 
choice and no knowledge as to the individual through 
whom its progeny shall be generated. The female 
fish may become a mother without ever having seen 
her mate, and the male may become the father of in- 
numerable offspring without ever having seen the 
mother. Whatever margin of uncertainty the un im- 
pregnated eggs of the old system might have afforded 
for the conjecture that empty eggs were the conse- 
quence of mismating on the part of the fish, or rather 
of the manipulator, there is none left now. Mechani- 
cal contact of eggs and milt, indiscriminately taken, 
produces all the results that mutual affection and 
choice of mates could accomplish. There is now no 
possible place left for sentiment in the connubial rela- 
tions of trout that are artificially spawned. 

There are also two practical advantages incidentally 
connected with this Russian discovery, and with these 
I will close this discussion of its consequences. One 
of these advantages is that the operator need not feel 
obliged to hurry through the impregnation process, as 
he was formerly obliged to, lest the milt should become 
worthless before the eggs were secured, or vice versa, 
for by the dry method he can have time enough. And 
the other is, that when there is danger that the milt 
will run short on any day, the surplus milt of previous 
more favorable days can be bottled up and kept for 
the emergency, when the day's supply of milt proves 
insufficient. 

Let us now return to the subject more particularly 



100 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

before us, namely, the modus operandi of impregnating 
the eggs. The process is very simple. Having se- 
cured the fish and sorted out the ripe males and the ripe 
females, take a female and express the eggs from her 
into a dry pan, according to the directions on page 85. 
One layer is about enough for a pan. Then take the 
milt from the male. Shake the pan gently and tilt it 
at each end alternately, so as to mix the milt and eggs 
as thoroughly as possible. This will be easily accom- 
plished, as the little water which falls from the fish into 
the pan, and the capillary attraction of the mass of 
eggs, will assist the dissemination of the milt. 

After giving the spermatozoa and eggs time enough 
for thorough contact, but before the eggs set, pour on 
water to the depth of an inch or two. Stir well and 
leave till the eggs separate, which will be from fifteen 
to forty-five minutes, according to the temperature of 
the water, the eggs remaining set longest in cold 
water. When separated, rinse the eggs till they are 
perfectly clean. They are then ready to be placed in 
the hatching troughs. 

How TO TELL Ripe Fish. 

It is usually a very anxious question with beginners, 
how they will know when a spawning trout is ripe. I 
would advise those who feel this anxiety not to worry 
about it at all. 

You cannot tell, the first time you try your hand at 
it ; but follow the directions about trying them, and 
whenever the spawn does not flow easily, let the fish 
go, and try another. Do not urge the spawn too for- 



TAKING THE EGGS. lOI 

cibly. This is the great fault of beginners. They are 
so afraid that the fish is ripe, and that they will not 
find it out, that they often kill it, if unripe, by using ex- 
cessive force. Let me say that your danger, if you are 
inexperienced, is not half so much of losing the spawn 
as of killing the fish. I knew of a man who had thirty 
trout, and who killed them all before the spawning sea- 
son began, without getting an egg, by trying to force 
the eggs. When the fish is ripe, the eggs will come : 
that you may depend on, in nineteen cases out of 
twenty. If they do not come and come easily in any 
instance, do not trouble yourself about that fish ; let 
her go. You will get her the next day again, if she is 
not quite but nearly ripe. If you have any doubt at 
all whether the fish is ripe, give the fish the benefit of 
the doubt. In time you will learn to tell at a glance, 
and patience and practice will soon bring that time to 
pass. To tell quickly and surely whether a fish is ripe, 
is something that cannot be learned from books. 

There are ceftain signs, it is true, which usually ac- 
company ripeness in a female trout, of which the loose- 
ness of the eggs in the abdomen, after they have left 
the ovaries, is the surest. There are others also, but 
the specific signs are all fallible, and what an expert 
tells by, is not one specified sign or another, but an in- 
describable ripe look, which is neither color, shape, 
nor condition of organs, but a something pervading 
the whole, a tout ensemble^ which tells at a glance that 
the fish is ripe, as in a similar way you tell that a 
peach or a blackberry is ripe. This you must learn 
by practice. Books cannot teach it, but practice will. 



102 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



Further Directions for Impregnating the Eggs. 

The following additional suggestions may be of ser- 
vice to the beginner in learning to impregnate trout 
eggs. 

1. Use eggs that flow easily^ ajid no others. It is true 
that there will be some spawners which, from an ex- 
ceptional construction of organs, will not give their 
spawn readily when ripe ; but in nineteen cases out of 
twenty, when the eggs come hard they are immature ; 
and the best rule to observe, at least in beginning, is to 
take only the eggs which come easily. Avoid all others. 
If the first half come easily and the balance less so, 
take the first half and leave the rest. When you 
perceive the eggs lying in rows under the skin, do not 
try the fish at all. The ovaries are not open, and she 
is certainly not ripe. 

2. Do not use too cold water. The eggs begin to 
stick quicker, and remained stuck longer, in very cold 
water than in warmer water. The zoosperms of the 
milt also are less active and effective in very cold 
water.* At all events, my experience has been that 
very cold water is unfavorable to impregnation. In 
October the water in the brooks will do very well, but 
later, in November and December, it gets too cold, 
and the necessary exposure to the cold air while 

* M. de Quatrefages sa^* that the spermatozoa of trout milt 
live the longest at a temperature between 41° and 48° Fahrenheit ; 
but that when the temperature exceeds these limits, the increase 
of the energy on the part of the animalcules compensates to a 
certain extent for the shorter duration of their vitality. 



TAKING THE EGGS. IO3 

spawning makes matters still worse. During the latter 
part of the season, the water for the spawning pans 
should be taken from the spring, and, if necessary, 
kept at the spring temperature by artificial heat. 

3. Make quick work in impregnating the eggs. Have 
everything ready beforehand, so as not to lose a mo- 
ment's time after the fish are in the tub. Do not be 
ovei two minutes with any one pan, and take but one 
layer of eggs to a pan. By these precautions you will 
secure absorbing eggs and active zoosperms and a 
good intermingling of both, even at the minimum 
estimate of the period of their effectiveness. You 
will also thus avoid the reabsorption of milt by the 
males, which will sometimes happen when they are 
disturbed.^ 

4. Stir the water well in the pans 7uhen first poured 
in, but not afterwards. This precaution is, of course, 
to effect a thorough distribution of the spermatozoa 
through the water, to act upon the eggs. After the 
eggs begin to adhere, leave them perfectly quiet till 
they separate spontaneously. I have heard it said 
that the water should be stirred during the whole time 
of the adhering of the eggs, but this is a mistake. 

5. Allow the eggs ample time to separate. It will 

do no harm if you leave the eggs an hour in the pan 

with the milt, but it will do harm to move them too 

soon. Some authorities say that thirty minutes is long 

* Males having good and ready-flowing milt sometimes, when 
frightened, seem to reabsorb it into the glands, so that it cannot 
be pressed out naturally. By immersing the fish in warm water, 
however, say at 70° Fahrenheit, the glands will be relaxed so that 
the milt will flow copiously again. 



104 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

enough to leave them, some say twenty minutes, and 
one late authority says one minute. I should rather 
leave them together forty-five minutes than less. It 
depends, however, very much on the temperature of 
the water, the adhesive period lengthening as the 
temperature decreases. You are more likely to err 
on the safe side by keeping them too long together, 
than by not keeping them long enough. 

6. Rinse thoroughly. The eggs should be thor- 
oughly rinsed before removal to the hatching boxes, 
for the effete milt clinging to them eventually putrefies 
and kills the eggs if left on them. They should 
therefore be rinsed till the water in the pan is per- 
fectly clear. Some authorities recommend washing 
the eggs when first taken from the fish, to get rid of 
the mucus enveloping them, which is thought unfa- 
vorable to impregnation. There is no sort of sense 
in this. 

7. Practise to acquire dexterity in handling the fish. 
Time is so valuable in impregnating eggs, that it is 
worth while to practise, as in any accomplishment, 
for dexterity. Dexterity, when acquired, saves time at 
the very moment when time is the most precious, and 
often secures the impregnation of eggs which would 
otherwise be lost. The difference between a skilled 
expert and a novice in this respect is astonishing. 
The former will run through a large lot of fish, and 
spawn them all properly in a time that would seem 
incredibly short to a bungler, who would very likely 
consume half a day on the same number. The results, 
also, of his manipulations, will present an ecjual con- 



TAKING THE EGGS. 10$ 

trast in the impregnation of the eggs. Acquire, there- 
fore, as much dexterity as you can in handUng the fish. 

Closing Notes. 

The spawning season for brook trout in New Eng- 
land begins the first or second week of October. It 
is earUer north of New England, and later south of it. 
The length of the spawning period depends on the 
equability of the temperature of the water. In ordi- 
nary brooks, where the temperature of the water varies 
with the temperature of the air, the spawning is over 
by the middle of December, and often before.* In 
spring water, when the temperature is not affected by 
the air, the trout sometimes continue to spawn all 
winter. In Seth Green's ponds, the trout begin to 
spawn the 12th of October, and continue spawning 
till the I St of March. At the Cold Spring Trout 
Ponds, they begin the same day, the 12th of October, 
and finish the first week in December. 

All two-year-old trout spawn. Some yearlings do, 
and some do not. The main dependence of the 
trout breeder for eggs is on trout upwards of two years 
old. The eggs of the trout are large compared with 

* I think it must be now admitted, in view of so much evi- 
dence, that individual members of the Sahno family spawn in 
the spring. How much is the rule and how much the excep- 
tion we do not know. The Danube Salmon [Salmo hucho) all 
do. See Artificial Fish Breeding, Fry, p. 52. There is also a 
variety of salmon in the St. John River, N. B., that come up regu- 
larly to spawn in the spring. The same is reported of the Brit- 
ish rivers Wye and Severn. See River Fisheries, ** Land and 
Water," April 29 and May 20, 1871. 

5* 



I06 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

those of most fish, except the salmotr. They average 
about three sixteenths of an inch in diameter, varying 
very considerably in size, the very largest containing 
probably twice the bulk of the very smallest. They 
are sometimes colorless, sometimes orange-hued, and 
sometimes have a rich red tint. 

The cause of the variation in the color of the eggs 
is not positively known. It has been thought to be 
hereditary.* It has also been attributed to the color 
of the flesh of its parent, and to the nature of the par- 
ent's food.t 

A correspondent of Mr. Buckland says that the 
tints cannot depend on the color of the parent's flesh, 
because graylings' eggs have similar tints, and all gray- 
lings are white-fleshed. 

The outer membrane of the egg is very elastic and 
tough. The internal structure of the egg is as follows. 
On the outside is the shell membrane, corresponding 
to the hard shell of birds' eggs. Inside of this shell, 
which is formed, as with birds' eggs, at quite a late 
period of the development of the egg in the ovary, 
is another membrane called the yolk membrane. This 
is very different from the shell membrane, and is quite 
delicate. This yolk envelope contains the yolk of 
the egg, in which are several drops of oil, which form 
the food that the young alevin absorbs in the yolk-sac 
stage. In the yolk also floats the germinal vesicle, 
which is a smaU cell, and which contains another set 
of minute cells called the germinative spots or points. 

* Massachusetts Fisheries, Report, 1868, p. 31. 
t Fish Hatching, Buckland, pp. 19, 20. 



TAKING THE EGGS. IO7 

Here lies the germ of the egg, and the microscopic 
opening called the micropyle, through which the 
spermatozoa enter in the process of impregnation. 

When the egg dies, the membranes let in water, 
which precipitates the contents of the egg in the form 
of a soft, opaque, white paste. It is this which gives 
the white appearance to the dead eggs. 

The number of eggs to a fish is given as one thou- 
sand to the pound, but it is often more than this, and 
varies very much with the size of the eggs, those hav- 
ing small eggs yielding the most in number. I have 
taken eighteen hundred eggs from a pound trout, and 
once took over sixty eggs from a trout that weighed 
just half an ounce immediately after being stripped. 

The Effect of the Weather upon the Spawning 
OF Trout on Different Days. 

Trout seem to feel the changes of weather quite as 
much as the air-breathing animals above water. In- 
deed, I have a theory that the various conditions of 
the atmosphere, which we describe by the words " raw," 
" chilly," " disagreeable," " pleasant," " agreeable," 
" delicious," are also shared by the water, — certainly 
the various electrical states of the atmosphere are, — 
and that the fish in the water feel the difference as we 
do. None know better than old anglers how much the 
weather affects the feelings of the fish under water, and 
I am inclined to think that most of them hold very 
much the same theory. It is at all events true, that in 
the spawning season the trout are very much influenced 
in their spawning by the character of the day. 



I08 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

An experienced breeder can tell in the morning, by 
the wind, the sky, and the state of the air, how his 
trout are going to spawn that day. Indeed, a person 
sensitive to the changes in the weather can tell by 
his feelings, with his eyes shut, whether it is going to 
be a good day for spawning. A warm rain is the 
most favorable condition for spawning. A sharp, 
frosty night, followed by a warm, bright, sunny after- 
noon, is the next best.* A warm rain, particularly, 
brings up the fish upon the beds in swarms. 

This is partly owing to the increased volume of the 
water, for a freshet always calls out the instinct in 
trout and salmon to rush up to higher waters ; but 
it is not wholly this, for the action of the pattering 
rain on the water hastens irresistibly their time of 
parturition, and they would spawn more in a warm 
rain, if the volume of water were not increased any. 
On these favorable days it is noticeable that the milt 
of the males is also much better ripened, as well as 
the eggs of the female. 

A raw, chilly November day, when the air feels disa- 
greeable, is the worst kind of weather for spawning, and 
in some of these days they will hardly come up at all. 

An increased current and volume of water have an 
effect upon the spawning fish similar to a rain, per- 
haps from the same cause, namely, increase of friction 
in the water. 

* Francis, I think, s^ys that a cloudy day is best for spawning. 
My experience has been entirely to the contrary, unless it Gained. 
The explanation may possibly be that he saw them best on a 
cloudy day, as they are less shy on such days. 



TAKING THE EGGS. IO9 

At any rate, the trout come up better when the 
stream rises. This instinct the breeder can often turn 
to his own convenience. Foranstance, if he must be 
absent a day, he can keep the spawners back by turning 
off the water as far as is safe ; or if he wants to hasten 
the spawning on any particular day, he can do so 
by turning on a powerful current. 

The afternoon especially, whether rainy or sunny, I 
have always found to be the best part of the day for 
taking spawn. 

To insure ripe eggs, I think once a day is quite 
often enough to manipulate the fish. 

Spawning in the Pond. 

In the course of a few week^ the daily disturbing 
of the trout on their nests will often, and I think 
usually, drive them farther down stream, and induce 
them to spawn in the pond. This of course results in 
the loss of the eggs, and must not be allowed. The best 
way to discourage it is, to throw in a shovelful of mud or 
earth, wherever you discover them making their nests. 

At my own ponds I have two sets of spawning 
races, one below the other. I use the upper one 
only, to begin with, and when the trout abandon this, 
on account of being disturbed, they fall back to the 
second raceway, where they can generally be kept 
till the season is over. 

The Spawning Pans. 

The dishes for stripping spawn into are usually 
rectangular pans, or common milk-pans, with a 



no DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

rectangular depression of a quarter of an inch or so 
in the bottom. The object of this rectangular feature 
of the dish is to enable the operator to count the 
eggs, which of course is easily done for any one layer 
by counting the number in one row, each way, and 
multiplying them together. 

It has been demonstrated that fish of the same 
family can sometimes be crossed. The Chinese have 
long been in the practice of crossing various breeds 
of the carp. Trout eggs have been impregnated 
with salmon milt, and hatched, and salmon eggs im- 
pregnated with trout milt have hatched.* 

The question whether the progeny will ever repro- 
duce, has not, I think, been decided by actual exper- 
iment : but science, popular belief, and analogy all 
bear uniformly negative testimony. 

Placing the Spawn. 

This is a very simple process, After the eggs in the 
pan are thoroughly rinsed, take them to the hatching 
house, and set back the water in the hatching trough 
so that it will be about two inches deep. Then place 
one end of the pan below the surface of the water, 
and, drawing it slowly backwards up stream, gradually 
pour the eggs out under water. If you give the pan a 

* " In 1869 I crossed the yellow perch Perca {flavescens) with 
the glass-eyed pike {Lucioperca), both percoids, using perch eggs 
and pike milt. The result was an embryo which continued to 
develop till the seventh day, when the development suddenly 
stopped entirely, although the embryo did not die. At this point 
it resembled the embrj'o of the same age of the yellow perch 
proper." — Artificial Fish Breeding, Fry, p. 52. 



TAKING THE EGGS. Ill 

sort of sifting motion, it will distribute the eggs rather 
more evenly. When the eggs are all out, take a 
feather and separate and place them as you wish to 
have them remain. It is best, on the whole, in placing 
the eggs through the season, to begin at the bottom of 
the hatching trough and work up, because by this plan 
the shells and other waste matter coming from the 
hatched eggs are not carried down upon the others 
still hatching. 



CHAPTER II. 
HATCHING THE EGGS. 

THE eggs being taken and laid down in the 
troughs, the next thing is to hatch them. This 
is a long and slow process, and coming, as it does, in 
the coldest season of the year, has, in the colder lati- 
tudes of this country, some hardships connected with 
it. For instance, the daily examination of the eggs in 
a house hatching a quarter or a half million is some- 
times a long task of almost still work, usually in a 
room so large and damp that the stove has no effect 
on its general temperature ; and when the mercury is 
at zero or 15° below it, one can imagine what exposure 
this work in ice and water must be. 

On the other hand, hatching the eggs is the very 
simplest and surest of all the branches of trout breed- 
ing. Any one can hatch the eggs with the knowledge 
now furnished from past experience, by simply follow- 
ing directions. It requires no skill or proficiency. It 
is mere clock-work routine when the hatching appara- 
tus is properly prepared. When you consider that the 
eggs differ from the fish in these two points, namely, 
that they cannot move of themselves, and that they 
require no nourishment, you perceive at once how 
much the care of them must be simplified in conse- 



HATCHING THE EGGS. II3 

quence. Indeed, the eggs kept in clean running water 
will hatch themselves. Nature provides with the egg 
all that it needs for its nourishment, and what is re- 
quired of the breeder is simply to see that nothing 
interferes with nature's work. 

This negative task, however, of guarding the eggs 
from danger, though, with the present improved appli- 
ances for hatching, it requires no great skill, is not by 
any means a sinecure, but, on the contrary, calls for 
caution, vigilance, and labor, as will be seen by the 
following general remarks on hatching eggs. 

•The main dangers to which the eggs are subjected 
are four in number, and are all fatal. They are, — 

1. Alga (fungus).* 

2. Sediment. 

3. Living enemies. 

4. Byssus (fungus).* 

Carbonized wood is a protection against the first, 
fungus. The system of filtering is a protection against 
the second, sediment. Tight covers are a protection 
against the third, live enemies. The daily examina- 
tion of the eggs is a protection against the fourth, 
byssus. 

It follows, then, that the dangers are all guarded 
against by the provisions themselves of the hatching 
apparatus, in connection with the daily examination of 
the eggs. 

It may be well here, however, to allude briefly to 

* These are both fungi, but the first enumerated is usually 
called, in trout breeding, by its generic name, fungus, and the 
fourth by its specific name, byssus. 

H 



114 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

the character and effect of the four sources of injury 
mentioned. 

I. Fungus^ There is no word in the fish breeders' 
vocabulary that is so associated with loss and devasta- 
tion as the word " fungus." There is nothing with 
which he has to deal that is so insidious and deadly 
as fungus. This silent, invisible foe is sure to come, if 
any door is left open for its entrance. It often fastens 
its irrevocable grasp on the eggs, without giving any 
sign of its approach. Once present in the water, it 
spreads over everything. It cannot be removed. It 
never lets go its hold. It is fatal in its effects. 

Most of my readers know that fungus is a vegetable 
growth of a low order, which makes its appearance 
almost invariably where there is water, and especially 
on newly cut wood, on which it eventually becomes a 
mass of nearly colorless or milky slime.f What makes 
it so peculiarly noxious is, that each one of its cells, 
whether detached or not, is a reproductive seed, 
that is to say, a perfect reproducing plant in itself. 
Consequently, when it is torn up anywhere, or broken 
in pieces, instead of being destroyed, it only becomes 
more powerful to injure. 

So where any fragment of fungus falls, however 
small, even if it is only one microscopic cell, it imme- 
diately proceeds to grow, and produce other similar 

* "Fungus, a large natural order of plants, comprehending 
the microscopic plants, which form mould, mildew, smut, etc. 
The fungi constitute one division of the Linnean class of Cryp- 
togamia." — Webster's Dictionary, 

t On hard wood and knotty wood it is sometimes black, but 
the common form of growth is nearly colorless. 



HATCHING THE EGGS. II5 

cells, and so on indefinitely. Therefore when it is 
torn off or broken in pieces, as it constantly is, by the 
action of running water, it is not destroyed, but ren- 
dered tenfold more capable of injury ; for where one 
plant existed before, now there are as many plants 
as fragments. Thus having once found entrance, it 
spreads over everything, and its removal is worse than 
Hercules's task of killing the hundred-headed Hydra, 
whose heads grew out as fast as they were cut off. 

This fungus, if once present in the hatching water, 
will certainly attach itself to the eggs, and when it 
does, their fate is sealed ; you cannot save them from 
its effect, as it never lets go its hold. It will surely 
eat out the vitality of the embryo within, and will 
either kill it wholly or will leave a puny, lifeless, trans- 
parent creature, which will in all probability never live 
to grow up. It cannot therefore be guarded against 
with too much care. 

If the eggs seem to hang together, or stick to the 
bottom, or move about heavily, when they are agitated 
with a feather, you should be on the watch for fungus, 
for these are signs of it. It is detected for a certainty, 
on the eggs, by placing a few in a clear homoeopathic 
phial, and holding them up to the light. If there is 
fungus on them, it will be seen as a collection of very 
fine, ethereal, colorless threads floating over the eggs 
like streamers. If you see this, the pestilence has 
come. 

If it should by any accident form upon your eggs, 
shut out at once all light from them ; this will check 
its growth somewhat. Increase the current as much 



Il6 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

as you can safely, and make the water colder, if pos- 
sible. You can never make good eggs of them again, 
* but you may arrest its spreading in some degree, and 
save the lives of some of the embryos. Ar^ ounce 
of prevention is, however, worth a pound of cure, and 
in this instance it is worth a thousand pounds of 
cure. Therefore char every box, aqueduct, and trough, 
and all the wood-work through which the water flows ; 
then you will have no fungus. It will not form on 
charcoal in the dark. 

2. Sediment. This is a danger of no small impor- 
tance, but it is nothing like fungus in its destructive- 
ness, for it can be removed, it does not spread, and it 
is not always fatal. It is, however, a very bad thing, 
and sometimes very troublesome. It consists of the 
very fine dust which is held mechanically in all run- 
ning water. As remarked in a previous chapter, it 
may not be discernible in the water when examined 
by the eye, but will show its presence after the water 
has run a certain length of time over a given place, by 
being precipitated as a light deposit of dirt or mud 
over the spot. This fine layer of dirt, if it should 
settle on the eggs, would suffocate them in time, or if 
not in sufficient quantity to suffocate them would, by 
interrupting the processes of absorption and growth of 
the embryo at certain points, cause a deformity in the 
fish when hatched. Many of the curved spines, 
hunched backs, and spiral bodies of fish newly hatched 
are caused by this partial suffocation of the embryo by 
the sediment. The remedy for sediment, or rather its 
prevention, as before observed, is the system of filters. 



HATCHING THE EGGS. 11/ 

These should be sufficient to arrest it effectively. If 
they cannot be made sufficient, then the stream is not 
worth using.* 

If by any accident sediment should get upon the 
eggs occasionally, the method of removing it is so 
simple, that it need cause no alarm, if it is attended to 
at once. This method consists merely in watering the 
eggs with a common garden watering-pot, at the same 
time keeping the outlet screen clear, to let off the sed- 
iment as it floats down. This plan, though so simple, 
is very effective. It will remove every particle of sed- 
iment from the eggs, and leave them, as well as the 
bed of the hatching-troughs, cleaner than before the 
sediment was observed. The agitation also seems to 
do the eggs good in other ways, f 

I should water the eggs occasionally, even if there 
were no sediment to be removed. The precaution 

« 

* When the hatching water has so much sediment in it that 

filtering cannot make it safe for the eggs in the common hatch- 
ing troughs, the water can still be used sometimes with grilles, 
by washing off daily with the watering-pot the sediment which 
collects on the eggs. The sediment will fall through the 
openings between the grilles, and be out of the way of the 
eggs. The eggs can be safely hatched in this way, but the 
sediment must be closely watched and carefully kept off the 
eggs. 

t " Une autre condition necessaire au developpement des oeufs, 
c'est de les remuer souvent ; un repos absolu les tuerait neces- 
sairement." — Vogt, Embryologie des Salmones, p. i6. 

It should be said, in explanation of the above note, that Vogt's 
experiments were not conducted in running water. This does 
not, however, invalidate his testimony as to the effect of agi- 
tating the eggs. 



Il8 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

should be taken, however, to have the water about two 
inches deep, or the concussion of the falhng water in 
the earlier stages of the eggs will sometimes be inju- 
rious to the embryo. 

3. Living ejiemies. So much has been already said 
about this class of dangers, that I would pass them by 
here, if I had not seen so much carelessness on the 
part of trout breeders in leaving their eggs exposed to 
these enemies. I am convinced that persons gener- 
ally do not begin to realize the danger from this source, 
and I have often wished, for their benefit, that a pic 
ture could be drawn, representing all the enemies to 
trout eggs directing their steps just after nightfall to 
their nightly feast in the hatching-house troughs. It 
is true they do not all come at once ; but if they did, 
there would be in the picture mice, rats, weasles, 
muskrats, minks, cats, frogs, snakes, lizards, evets, 
caddis-worms, water-spiders, boat-flies, water-beetles, 
and snails ; and then the picture would not include 
ducks-, geese, wild water-fowl, eels, large trout, and 
countless other fish which would come in the daytime 
if they could get at them. 

Yet persons imagine that, because they do not see 
these creatures feeding on the eggs or 3^oung fry in 
the morning when they open the hatching-house, they 
have probably not been there. But it is just the 
reverse. The probability is all the other way. It is 
even a certainty. Just imagine for a moment that a 
starving mouse has strayed into the house some freez- 
ing night ; it will not be long before he will find the 
eggs, and will make a feast on them. How can you 



HATCHING THE EGGS. 1 19 

suppose that the next night, when he gets hungry 
again, he will not return to where he left a rich supper 
the night before ? Do you suppose there is one 
chance in a hundred of his not coming ? There is not 
even that small chance. If the mouse is alive the next 
night, and has not been driven away, he will come back 
to his feast as sure as darkness comes on, and so he 
will continue to do every night of his life while the eggs 
last. And yet I hear people say, in the coolest way 
imaginable, of their unprotected spawn, " I guess noth- 
ing will come to take the eggs to-night." Why, not 
only is the warm hatching-house an attractive place to 
these creatures of prey in the winter, when the eggs are 
hatching, because of its comparative warmth, but they 
are every one of them impelled to these eggs by the 
strongest of animal instincts, namely, hunger. How, 
then, can the eggs escape, if they are exposed } 

The only protection that I believe in is covers. 
Traps and poison may or may not remove the cause 
of loss before the loss comes, but tight lids make the 
thing sure. Have tight lids, fitting close, over all your 
troughs, and you may sleep in peace at night for all 
the injury that rats and mice and other outside enemies 
will do your eggs. 

4. Byssus. This is also a fungus growth, like the 
other, but it comes from the eggs themselves, and not 
from external sources, and it is not so much to be 
feared. This plant is created by matter decaying in 
the water ; so that whenever a fish egg loses its vitality 
and begins to putrefy, byssus commences to grow. 
With trout eggs in water at 40° or ^0° degrees Fahren- 



120 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

heit it generally appears within forty-eight hours after the 
egg turns white, and often sooner, and the warmer 
the water the quicker it comes. It is never quite safe 
to leave the dead eggs over twenty-four hours in the 
hatching boxes. The peculiarity of byssus is, that it 
stretches out its long, slender arms, which grow rapidly, 
over everything within its reach. This makes it pecu- 
liarly mischievous, for it will sometimes clasp a dozen 
or even twenty eggs in its Briarean grasp before it is 
discovered, and any egg that it has seized has received 
its death-warrant. Like the alga before mentioned, 
every cell is reproductive ; and it should, on that 
account be carefully handled. The remedy or protec- 
tion is the daily examination of the eggs with feather 
and nippers. If this is faithfully performed, the byssus 
will never come. 

This examination of th_e eggs is a very considerable 
part of the trout breeder's work in winter, and demands 
to be treated at considerable length, which I shall en- 
deavor to do in this connection. 

If your hatqhing streams would run just as you 
wanted them to, if the filters were all right and would 
remain so, if the eggs were all impregnated, this daily 
examination would be a very easy task ; but as this is 
too much to expect, you should be prepared to make 
quite a labor of this daily duty, and the following sug- 
gestions may be of some service in performing it. On 
entering the hatching house, look first at the ouf/ef 
of all the hatching compartments. You will soon learn 
to do so instinctively. They will tell you whether the 
various streams are running right or not ; for if the 



HATCHING THE EGGS. 121 

outlet is running right, the inlet must be also, of neces- 
sity. If anything is wrong in the flow of the hatch- 
ing streams, follow them up from the outlet till you 
discover, the cause, and, when you have, remove it, 
and also, if practicable, the possibility of its occurring 
again. If the streams are running right, next ex- 
amine the filters. If they are clogged up or too dirty 
for safety, take them out, change and clean them, 
according to directions given under the head of Filters.* 
Remove them carefully when they are taken from the 
tank, so as not to shake the dirt off the flannel into 
the water, and try to keep the rear one clean enough 
not to require changing at all ; for when you remove 
that one, the sediment in front of it has free access to 
the gravel, and some of it may get through to the eggs. 
The eggs claim your attention next ; you proceed to 
them with feather and nippers. The feather you need 
to move the eggs with ; the nippers you require to 
pick out the dead ones. A feather from a turkey's 
tail I like best for feathers. For nippers take a piece 
of flat steel spring, about ten inches long and not over 
an eighth of an inch in width \ bend it exactly in the 
middle, spread the ends by hammering, and you have 
as good an instrument, I believe, as there is for pick- 
ing out eggs. Other things are used, as, for instance, 
the bulb syringe, and a miniature spoon made of a 
concave coil of fine wire fastened into a wooden 
handle. These have the advantage over nippers for 
picking out live eggs, that they do not hurt the eggs ; 

* The tanks should be drawn off and thoroughly washed out, 
whenever much sediment begins to collect in them. 
6 



122 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

but for picking out dead eggs, there is, in my opinion, 
nothing better than the common steel nippers just 
described. Nothing certainly can be surer and 
quicker in its operation in an experienced hand. 

Your first question, when the eggs are to be picked 
over, will probably be. How can the dead ones be dis- 
tinguished fi^om the live ones ? But the anxiety which 
every new operator feels on this point is wholly need- 
less, for you cannot mistake them. The dead ones 
will turn as white as milk, and can be as easily told 
from the live ones as white quartz from gray peb- 
bles. You will even perceive the dead ones distinctly, 
as soon as you open the boxes. You will at once 
remove them with the nippers. To handle the nip- 
pers rapidly and safely is quite an art, and reminds 
one of playing at jack-straws. But as the required 
skill will soon come with practice, I will say no more 
here, than that you should be careful at first not to 
touch the live ones with the nippers, and by all means 
not to bruise them by any pressure from above. In 
time you will learn to hit the live ones, while picking 
out, without hurting them. But till you have acquired 
this knack, you should be on your guard. 

As it is only the unimpregnated eggs that die (except 
by accident), the amount of the work of examining 
the eggs depends almost wholly on the percentage of 
impregnation. This is obvious. If one hundred per 
cent were impregnated, there would be none to pick 
out, and the work would be nothing. If ninety nine 
per cent were impregnated, the work would be very 
slight. But if not more than fifty per cent were 



HATCHING THE EGGS. 1 23 

good, then the work would be increased fifty-fold. 
The difference in the labor would be very great, as 
this little estimate will show. Suppose half a million 
eggs are taken, and fifty per cent are empty. It takes 
about a minute to pick out twenty eggs ; then to pick 
out fifty per cent of five hundred thousand would take 
over twelve thousand minutes, or two hundred hours, 
or twenty days of ten hours each. 

It is therefore very desirable to get a large percentage 
of impregnated eggs, if only on account of the work 
it saves, as well as for weightier reasons. 

During the first few days after the eggs are placed, 
there will not be many white ones to pick out, unless 
they have been injured in being taken. You must 
not be elated at this, for it is no sign that the un- 
changed eggs are all good, or nearly so, for the empty 
ones will not turn white to any extent for two or three 
weeks, or more, and some will not die till all the good 
ones are hatched. But you are no better off for it. 
On the contrary, I think I have noticed that the better 
the impregnation of any lot, the sooner the empty ones 
of that lot died ; probably because the eggs were riper. 
Their turn will come, however, to all the bad eggs ; 
and when the time fairly sets in for them to die, then 
the work will begin in earnest, and unless you have a 
small stock or a very good impregnation, there will be 
work of no trifling character. To stand or sit in the 
damp, unwarmed hatching house for a long time in mid- 
winter at this still work, is in our northern latitudes a 
severe task, and trying to the hardiest constitution. 
It is to be hoped, however, that my readers will have 



124 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

few empty eggs, and a large stove near by, to warm 
themselves at. 

The method of procedure in the daily examination 
of the eggs is, as before remarked, very much like 
playing at jack-straws. You begin first with the loose 
and uppermost eggs, then set more free by agitating 
the water with the feather, then pick out the loose ones 
again, then agitate the pile once more, and so on, till 
they have all been spread and all picked out in that lot. 
Leaving these evenly distributed, you pass on to the 
next, keeping account of the number you pick out, 
so as to know how many are left, and so on till all 
are examined. Strange as it may seem, this work, 
after all, has a certain charm about it, especially when 
you think what a vast wealth of life moves under the 
touch of your feather ; and it, moreover, affords an 
excellent opportunity for quiet reflection, so that if 
you can pick over the eggs without suffering too 
much from the cold, it is not so unpleasant a task as 
it seemed before you began it. 

The progress of the eggs in hatching will be watched 
with the liveliest interest. The simplest way to ex- 
amine their progress minutely is to take out two or 
three eggs, and place them in a homoeopathic phial filled 
with water. Hold the phial horizontally towards the 
light and above the eye. The contents of the eggs 
then become clearly visible, and can be examined at 
leisure, and a magnifying lens applied if desired. This 
is Seth Green's method. 

Another way is to take a small pane of window-glass, 
and, by fastening narrow wooden sides to it, make a 






HATCHING THE EGGS. 12$ 

shallow box with a glass bottom. Pour in a little water, 
and put the eggs to be examined in the water ; then 
by looking from above or below, but especially from 
below, you can see very distinctly what is inside the 
egg. This method obviates the distortion sometimes 
produced by refraction in the homoeopathic phial. 

You will soon be very anxious to ascertain how 
large a percentage of the eggs is impregnated. 

It has been usually thought that the impregnated 
eggs could not be told from the empty ones previous 
to the formation of the embryotic line, which is the 
spine of the fish, and which appears when about one 
third of the period of incubation *" is accomplished. 
This, however, is not strictly true, because there is 
a period, within forty-eight hours of the taking of the 
eggs, when the good eggs can be distinguished from 
the worthless ones. The distinction is this, that in 
the unimpregnated eggs a small annular disk, with 
a much smaller round dot in the centre, will be seen 
at the top of the egg, and will remain there until 
the eggs turn white, while in the impregnated egg 
the disk will disappear within twenty-four hours. 
The eggs, then, which after the first day present the 
disk, are unimpregnated. Those in which the disk is 
not visible are impregnated. The explanation of this 
is as follows. 

* The word "incubation" from in and cu^o, "to sit on," 
has been used in reference to the hatching of bird's eggs by 
steam, and seems to be equally allowable in this application for 
the hatching of fish eggs. There is no sitting upon the eggs in 
either case. 



126 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

At the end of a few hours, more or less, according to 
the temperature of the water, the germ of the egg rises 
to the top in both the fertihzed and the unfertiHzed 
egg, which look exactly alike. The germ in the un- 
fertilized egg, however, undergoes no change whatever 
from this time, while in the fertilized egg a process soon 
begins which is called by the French embryologists 
" sillonnement',^ or furrowing, and by English writers 
"segmentation." This process begins by the sinking 
of a deep furrow through the centre of the germ, divid- 
ing it into two equal parts. This is followed by an- 
other, bisecting the first, and another and another, until 
the subdivisions have been continued indefinitely, when 
the germ again presents nearly the same appearance 
as at first. While this '•'' sillonnement^' or segmenta- 
tion, is going on, the original disk formed by the germ 
in the impregnated egg disappears, and cannot be 
seen at all, thus distinguishing it plainly from the un- 
impregnated egg, which still presents the germ disk as 
clearly as ever. Therefore at this period the unim- 
pregnated eggs can be told from the impregnated 
ones by the one presenting the distinct germ disk, 
while the other shows no trace of it. 

The percentage of impregnated eggs can now be 
told approximately ; but as the light must be favorable 
in order to tell which eggs have the germ disk visible 
and which have not, and as it is not a good plan to 
handle the eggs too much at this stage, it is perhaps 
quite as well to be patient and wait till the tissues of 
the fish are firm enough to allow the egg to be han- 
dled, and the clearly marked eye-spots leave no doubt 



HATCHING THE EGGS. 12/ 

as to which eggs are impregnated and which are not, 
before attempting to decide with much exactness on 
the percentage of impregnation. 

As remarked above, a fine dark line near the mid- 
dle of the impregnated egg will be observed, on close 
examination, about the end of the first third of the 
hatching period. Soon the whole form of the fish will 
become cloudily apparent, and then the black eye- 
spots will appear, first one and then both. Now is the 
best time to tell what proportion of the eggs are im- 
pregnated. You can form some estimate, perhaps, be- 
fore, by taking out a few in the phial, say ten, and 
counting the impregnated ones in it. If, for instance, 
nine are visible, then you infer that ninety per cent are 
good. But this method is very deceptive, and can- 
not be relied upon, both because the number is too 
small to base an estimate on, and also because the 
specific gravity of the empty ones being a little less 
than that of the full ones, it sometimes happens that 
a twirl of the feather will throw the empty ones 
together in a hole^ and the impregnated ones together 
in another pile, on the mechanical principle which 
leaves sand, marl, and vegetable matter in a brook in 
different spots by themselves. In taking out three or 
four in a phial for examination, you may happen to hit 
upon one of these piles or the other, and so get a 
deceptive sample of the eggs in general. 

The best way to get the ratio of the good to the 
worthless ones is to take out several hundreds or a 
thousand after the eye-spots show plainly, and pick 
out the empty ones. Count both, and add its propor- 



128 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



IH 



tion of previously removed eggs to the number of 
empty ones, and you get at the proportion of impreg- 
nated eggs. This, however, only answers for the par- 
ticular box from which these were taken. To obtain 
the percentage of the whole season's yield, this opera- 
tion must be repeated with each box or compartment. 
It will be well to observe here, also, that it is a good 
plan, as soon as the impregnated eggs are unmistaka- 
bly distinguishable from the empty ones, to take them 
all out into pans, and remove all the empty ones 
before replacing them in the hatching-boxes. The 
work of picking over will be done much easier and 
quicker this way, and it has this great advantage, 
that it is done once for all, and you are for the rest 
of the season relieved of the burden of care which 
the daily necessity of removing the empty ones in- 
volves. 

The time required for hatching depends chiefly on 
the temperature of the water. Seth Green's rule is 
that at 50° Fahrenheit trout eggs will hatch out in 
fifty days, and every degree warmer or colder makes 
five days' difference in time ; warmer water shortening 
the period, and colder water lengthening it. Green 
also says, that if the fish are hatched in fifty days, the 
yolk sac remains thirty more. If in seventy days, the 
sac remains forty-five days. 



HATCHING THE EGGS. 1 29 

Mr. Stephen H. Ainsworth's table is as follows : — 



Average tem- 
perature of 
water. 


No. of days to 
first formation 
of trout. 


No. of days to 
formation of 
eyes and red 
blood. 


No. of days to 
hatching. 


No. of days 
after hatching 
to feeding. 




37 


43 


81 


165 




38^ 


29 


64 


135 


77 


39, 


28 


62 


121 




4oi 


27 


54 


109 


60 


41 


21 


49 


103 




42I 


19 


42 


96 




43^ 


17 


37 


89 


46 


44 


16 


34 


81 




45i 


15 


31 


73 




46^ 


13 


29 


65 




48 


II 


26 


56 




50 


10 


23 


47 


30 


52 


8 


18 


38 




54 


7 


15 


32 




Appearance 


as fig. 7. 


as fig. 12. 






of spawn as 










fig- 3. 











Although results somewhat varying from these fig- 
ures will be obtained in different waters, they may, 
nevertheless, be regarded as a safe guide in general. 
I will only add that in my own experience I have 
found that the yolk sac requires more time for its 
absorption in proportion to the time of incubation ; I 
should say quite a third more. 

As the development of the embryo advances, the 
care of the eggs will become more and more inter- 
esting. They will, however, lose their bright crys- 
talline look, as they lie in the water, and will assume, 
collectively, a dull brownish hue ; but when exam- 
ined separately, it will be seen that this does not 
6* I 



130 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

arise from any unfavorable change, but from the 
embryo thickening and darkening in the shell. This 
development and the filling up of the shell with 
the embryo proceeds rapidly till about the same 
time has elapsed that was required for the eye-spots 
to appear, when the whole figure of the fish, thick 
and black and fully formed, will be seen, usually 
lying quiet and motionless, but occasionally stirring 
with a little spasmodic leap or wriggle. The time of 
their release is now near at hand, and you may expect 
to find a newly hatched trout or two in your earlier 
hatching boxes any day."*. 

An inexperienced person might suppose that all 
trout eggs will produce fish that are just alike when 
hatched. But this is very far from the fact. There 
is just as much difference in a brood of newly hatched 
trout as there is between the brawniest and puniest 
of a litter of pigs or brood of chickens. Some will 
be large, strong, and full of vigor ; others will be 
small, weak, and inactive. It is a desirable thing to 
be able to know how to tell a lot of eggs that will 
produce good fish from a lot that will produce poor 
fish, and it is very easy to learn. If the embryo in 
the egg is seen to be dark, firm, thick, clearly defined, 

* As you will probably want to procure specimens of eggs 
and fish at different stages of growth, it is a good plan to 
have a set of homoepathic phials in readiness, and some alcohol. 
One part alcohol to three parts water is a good preserving 
mixture at this stage. This mixture will congeal, but will not 
expand in congealing sufficiently to burst the bottles. More 
alcohol with the water will destroy the delicate tissue of the 
embryo. 



I 



HATCHING THE EGGS. 



131 



and heavy-looking, and hatches late, the egg will pro- 
duce a healthy, hardy, broad-shouldered trout, and a 
good feeder. If the embryo is seen to be thin, light, 
transparent, and hatches before its time, it will pro- 
duce a puny, weakly, thin-bodied fish, and a poor eater, 
which has not five chances in a hundred of grow- 
ing up. 

Do not be anxious to have your eggs hatch early. 
If they hatch before their time, it is a bad sign. If 
the embryo remains long in the shell after forming^ 
and hatches late, it is a good sign. One sure con- 
sequence and indication of the presence of fungus is 
the premature hatching of the egg, before the embryo 
has become well hardened within the shell. Beware 
of eggs that promise to hatch too early, for they are 
very likely to be fungussy ; and out of a thousand fun- 
gussy eggs it is an even chance if one embryo lives a 
year. 

The microscopic changes in the eggs from day to 
day are presented in the accompanying drawings by 
Professor Agassiz. 





15 



13- 



DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



« 




107 





109 



I2S 




HATCHING THE EGGS. 1 33 

These plates represent eggs of the Coregonus palaa in differ- 
ent stages of their growth, as seen under a powerful magnifier. 

No. 15 represents a spoiled egg. 

No. 20. The embryo ten days old. 

No. 33. Front view of embryo eighteen days old. 

No. 99. An egg two days after impregnation. 

No. loi. Appearance of first furrow second day after impreg- 
nation. 

No. 102. An egg showing development of furrows. 

No. 107. Mulberry form of the embryo. 

No. 109. Embryonic germ immediately after the disappearance 
of the furrows. 

No. 125. Projection of the embryo prepared with acid, 8th day. 

No. 133. Projection of embryo prepared with acid, 17th day. 

The letters denote as follows : — 

a Shelly membrane ; b Yolk ; c Germinal vesicle ; d Yolk globules ; e Oil 
drops ; / Albumen ; g Yolk membrane ; h Yolk vesicle ; i Head of the em- 
bryo ; J Yolk cavity ; k Trunk of embryo ; / Tail ; m Dorsal keel ; n Dor- 
sal furrow ; o Ocular lobes ; J> Dorsal cord ; g Vertebral divisions ; r Sheath 
of dorsal cord ; .y Cephalic bow ; t Nuchal bow ; u Trunchal bow ; v Epider- 
moidal stratum ; x Procencephalon ; y Mesencephalon ; z Epencephalon. 

As too much caution cannot be observed in trout- 
culture, I hope the reader will pardon my repeating 
here the cautions already given : — 

To keep the covers down carefully ; 

To change the filters when dirty j 

To take out every dead egg once in twenty-four 
hours ; 

To use the watering-pot freely, if sediment settles 
on the eggs ; 

To guard everywhere against fungus. 

Transportation and Packing of the Eggs. 

Transportation of the eggs. No one need have any 
fear about being able to transport trout eggs safely. 



134 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

They have been sent to England and California with- 
out loss, and salmon eggs shipped from England have 
reached Australia alive. I have sent eggs to Kansas 
and Europe safely, and one hundred and seventy thou- 
sand salmon eggs from the writer's Salmon-Breeding 
Establishment on the Mirimichi came eight miles by 
private conveyance, one hundred miles by stage, one 
hundred miles by rail, two hundred miles by steamer, 
across the city of Boston by wagon, and one hundred 
and twenty more miles by rail before reaching their 
destination, where they were found, on opening, to be 
in good condition. Indeed, when trout and salmon 
eggs are carefully packed, they are about as safe in 
the moss which encloses them as they are in the 
hatching boxes, and the only risk to which they are 
exposed in transportation is rough handling ; and I 
have observed that they will stand a good deal of 
that. A few, say a dozen in a thousand, will perhaps 
die on the way ; but excepting these, they will, as a 
rule, arrive at their destination unhurt. Injury to 
any greater extent is the exception. 

On the tag or label which accompanies them should 
always be distinctly written, — 

That they are fish eggs ; 

That they should be handled carefully ; 

That they should be kept in a cool place ; 

That concussion will kill them ; 

That they must not be allowed to freeze. 

Packing the eggs. It is a sort of paradoxical fact 
that fish eggs do not require much water for hatching, 
but, relatively, plenty of air. Consequently, when 



HATCHING THE EGGS. 



135 



packed in wet moss, the conditions of hatching are 
supplied, namely, a little moisture and plenty of 
air. Moss is at the same time so soft that it will not 
bruise the eggs. Hence, wet moss is just the thing 
to pack fish eggs in. The moss containing the eggs 
can be packed in anything which admits air and is 
not injured by moisture. 

For packing in large quantities, a basket answers very 
well. Fish eggs have sometimes been sent in small 
quantities in a perforated percussion-cap box, and in tin 
snuffboxes. If sent by express without an attendant, 
the basket or box containing them should be packed 
in a still larger basket or box, containing hay or 
shavings or sawdust, to soften the force of accidental 
concussions, and to keep the temperature of the eggs 
equable. 





The usual way in practice to pack the trout eggs for 
transportation, with small quantities, is that adopted 
by Seth Green, which is to pack them in circular tin 
boxes, not over three inches in depth, with a; perfo- 
rated bottom to let the air in, and to pack the boxes 



136 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

themselves in a tin pail, somewhat larger, and to fill 
in with sawdust. This is a simple, compact, and 
safe way, and is the best now known, unless it is 
Mr. Wilmot's method.* The packing of the eggs in 
moss should be done as follows : Fill a large pan, 
a little deeper than the packing-box, with water. Make 
a bed of moss about half an inch deep on the bot- 
tom of the box, and sink the box in the pan of water. 
The bottom layer should be a single bunch of some 
kind of the finer common mosses, which are found 
almost anywhere in the woods. The subsequent lay- 
ers should be the damp rank moss which grows in 
swamps, and is known by the name of Sphagnum. 
Then take the required number of eggs from the 

* Mr. Wilmot's method of packing fish eggs is a very excellent 
one. His apparatus consists of a cylindrical can of tin, say fifteen 
inches in diameter, having two walls or sides, one within the 
other, on the refrigerator principle. The annular space between 
the two walls is filled with sawdust, to preserve an even tempera- 
ture within. The cylindrical space enclosed by the inner wall is 
filled with shallow circular trays about an inch deep, all of the 
same size, resting one upon another, and of a sufiicient diameter 
to fit nicely to the inner wall of the can. Each one of these shallow 
trays or pans has a circular hole through the centre to admit a 
movable iron rod, which runs from. the top of the can to the bot- 
tom of the last pan, to which it is fastened. The eggs are packed 
with wires in the shallow pans, and each pan as it is packed is 
strung on to the perpendicular rod, as beads are strung on a 
string. The first one, of course, going to the bottom of the can, 
the next resting on it, and so on till the top of the can is reached. 
The upper end of the rod now serves as a handle, by which all 
or any number of the pans can be raised at once out of the can, 
and by unstringing the pans, so to speak, each one with its con- 
tents can be examined. 



HATCHING THE EGGS. 1 3/ 

hatching- troughs,* and pour one layer evenly over the 
moss-t This can be done with a spoon, or still better, 
perhaps, as Green suggests, with a ladle, the mouth 
of the ladle in pouring being made to rest on the rim 
of the box under water,J so that the eggs will not 
come to the air at all. 

One layer of eggs having been placed, put in anoth- 
er thin layer of moss. This layer, as also the others 
succeeding it, should be carefully picked over, and 
all grass and roots removed, so as to make as soft 
and delicate a packing as possible. 

After the second layer of moss, place another layer 
of eggs, and so on, alternating till the box is filled, 
taking care to keep the box and to conduct all the 
operations under water, for it should be always borne 
in mind, when fish eggs are moved, that the secret of 
moving them correctly is to keep the eggs in the 
water, where, of course, they ought to be. 

After the top layer of moss is placed, take the box 
of moss and eggs out of the pan, and set it where the 

* Any strainer of convenient shape will do to take out the 
eggs with. If they are much scattered, first collect them to- 
gether in a heap with the feather. A skilful person will take 
them out safely with a large table-spoon. 

t Theodore Lyman recommends placing each layer of eggs in 
a fold of mosquito-netting, to keep them from mixing with the 
moss, and so facilitate the unpacking of them. This is a great 
improvement. Stationary racks are also sometimes placed 
above each layer to catch the pressure of the supervening eggs 
and moss. 

X All moving of eggs should be done under water when prac- 
ticable. 



138 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

superfluous water will drip out through the perforated 
bottom. If the moss settles much with the escape of 
the water, fill up to the top again with moss. Then, 
when the cover is soldered on in one or two places, 
to prevent displacement, it is ready to be packed in 
the pail of sawdust, the cover to which should be kept 
in its place by being well wired down. When the 
label is fastened on, the eggs are ready to be sent off. 



CHAPTER III. 

CARE OF ALEVINS * OR TROUT FRY WITH THE 
YOLK SAC ATTACHED. 

SOME morning when you go to the hatching boxes 
with the nippers to look over the eggs, you will see 
a long, thin, dark object, like a little splinter of wood, 
lying among the eggs, which you will perhaps attempt 
to remove with the nippers, wondering how it came 
there in the night. The first touch of the nippers will 
show it to be a living creature, and you will experi- 
ence, if you are a beginner, the exquisite sensation of 
knowing that your first trout has hatched. Soon 
others will follow, only one or two to the thousand at 
first, then more, till. the hatching period reaches its 
culmination, when the eggs will hatch in great quanti- 
ties daily, after which the number will decline again 
at very nearly an inverse ratio of progression. A 
warm rain will accelerate the hatching very much, as 
it does every other process of trout-life. More, per- 

* I am aware that this French word, " alevin/' means young 
fry ; but as there is no distinctive English word to designate a fish 
during the period of the absorption of the yolk sac, and as the 
word has been employed by at least one English writer (Francis, 
Fish Culture, p. 99) in the present application, though not, I 
believe, by American writers, I take the liberty to use it in this 
treatise to distinguish the trout fry with the yolk sac attached. 



140 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

haps, will hatch in one day, during a warm rain, than 
in the three subsequent days. 

The newly hatched fish are about half an inch in 
length. The yolk of the egg is still attached to them, 
from which they are nourished by absorption till it is 
all gone and they begin to feed. The period of ale- 
vin life is about two thirds or three fourths the length 
of the period of incubation. 

Its duration, like that of the egg period, depends on 
the temperature of the water, and it often happens, in 
water of a falling temperature, that the yolk-sac period 
lasts longer than it took the eggs to hatch. 

On the contrary, with eggs hatched late in the 
spring, as in the natural brooks, with a rising tempera- 
ture, the yolk sac remains on a very short period com- 
pared with the hatching of the eggs, — probably in 
some instances not one quarter of the time. 

During the period while the young fish are breaking 
the shell, the bottom of the troughs becomes quite un- 
clean from the collecting of cast-off shells and other 
causes, and it is a good plan to use the watering-pot 
freely at this time ; and as soon as it can be done 
without injury to the young fish, the bed of the troughs 
should be covered over with a layer of fresh clean 
gravel. 

The alevins lie quite still the greater part of the time 
at first, sometimes on their sides, sometimes flat on the 
sac. Occasionally they vary the monotony of this quiet 
life by aimless sallies of a few inches through the water, 
apparently in great excitement, but with no particular 
goal in view. The exertion will soon bring them to 



CARE OF ALEVINS. I4I 

the ground again quite out of breath, with their little 
hearts beating very fast, as is not surprising, consider- 
ing their age, and that they carry about a burden 
twice the bulk of their bodies proper. They require 
no watching nor care of any kind for the first few days. 
They do not try to get away, they do not require to be 
fed, and if the hatching apparatus is well arranged, and 
throws a good supply of water over them, very few 
will die. Indeed, the yolk-sac period is one of the 
healthiest of the trout's early life. 

They seem at first to be possessed of no particular 
instincts, but lie still near the spot where they were 
born, and do nothing. This, however, lasts only a few 
days."*" They are soon seized, sometimes very sud- 

* The following notes are taken from the writer's diary, Janu- 
ary, 1869. 

The embryos observed, were hatched from salmon eggs 
brought from the Mirimichi River. They were kept in a warm 
room, at a temperature that would probably make one day an 
equivalent of two or three days in the hatching trough at 45°, 

Fh-st day. Eggs hatched to-day. Young fish quite vigorous. 
Yolk sac plump and full. Body proper, thin, and delicate, and 
with cloudy outline. 

Second day. Change very slight. Outline a little more distinct. 
Body darker. Sac not quite so plump. 

Third day. Changes of yesterday slightly intensified. Beating 
of the heart very perceptible. Main artery distinctly seen. 

Fourth day. Form of yolk sac decidedly changed. Body firm- 
er and darker. Eyes very clear. Motion of fins quite per- 
ceptible. 

Fifth day. Fish much livelier, A new movement of the tail 
observed. 

Sixth day. Yolk sac very considerably changed, and contract- 
ing towards a point at the lower end. Other blood passages 
clearly perceptible. 



142 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

denly, with a singular and irresistible instinct to hide 
under something. If they do not find anything in the 
troughs to get beneath, they all try to hide under each 
other. I 

From this moment they are never at rest day nor 
night, but, gathering together in large bodies, will seek 
some dark corner, and pass their whole existence in 
one incessant and ineffectual struggle to get under 
each other and out of sight. In this struggle they 
crowd together in swarms, like bees. I have often seen 
a solid writhing mass of them, over half an inch deep, 
which could almost be covered with the hand, and 
which could not have numbered less than ten thou- 
sand.* 

This instinct to hide is so strong that they will 
dive head first, with all their might, into the gravel, 
and insinuate themselves into holes and chinks where 
you would think it impossible for anything to get, 
and where sometimes they can never get out again. 
Then woe to the little creatures if there are chinks 

Seventh day. Bodies acquiring decidedly more solidity. Sac 
more pointed. 

Eighth day. Fish decidedly harder, darker, and firmer fleshed. 
The herding-together instinct shows itself for the first time to- 
day. 

* It has been thought by some that this crowding together is 
hurtful, but I never knew a single fish to be injured by it, though 
I have sometimes turned more than twenty thousand in together 
at this stage. Contrary to some authorities, I keep the alevins 
in shallow water and a strong ripple. If they were in deep water 
with a slow current, I think there might be danger of injury from 
excessive crowding. 



CARE OF ALEVINS. 143 

or holes in the hatching troughs where they can so 
entrap themselves, for they will certainly do it. 
The instinct is so ceaseless that it seems to drive 
them on farther and farther, without any thought 
of turning back. I have seen a thousand at a time 
white and dead with suffocation under a pane of 
glass in the hatching trough, whither this instinct had 
pushed them on and on to this fatal termination. 
Here arises a serious objection to the use of hatching 
troughs with uncemented glass linings. The glass 
prevents the growth of fungus to some extent, it is true, 
but there is always danger of the alevins getting un- 
der the glass and becoming suffocated, as in the case 
just mentioned ; and so invincible is their instinct to 
do this, that they will constantly try to return under 
the glass, even when they are just taken out white and 
almost dead with suffocation. If, however, the reader 
should happen to use loose glass linings, or any lining 
or hatching bed of any kind which the young crea- 
tures can get behind or under, he is here cautioned to 
examine every day, and see if any are hidden in dan- 
gerous places, and, if so, to liberate them at once It 
is true that after the eggs are all hatched the linings 
can be taken out, but as this is so difficult to do, with- 
out burying some of the fish under the gravel, and as 
it also releases the fungus behind the glass upon the 
young trout, the remedy is almost as bad as the dis- 
ease ; and besides this, it is no remedy at all for the 
earlier-hatched alevins, Which must necessarily be ex- 
posed to the danger some time before the glass is 
ready to be taken out. 



144 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

And while the patent charcoal troughs can be had, 
it is not necessary. This irresistible instinct, which 
drives the alevins past all obstacles to secure a hiding- 
place, does not seem surprising, when we reflect that 
it is the only instinct, as well as the only means of 
self-preservation, which these very clumsy and perfectly 
helpless creatures have to protect themselves against 
their myriads of enemies. 

Up to the time when the first half of the yolk-sac 
period is passed, there is not much danger of loss, 
except from the little creatures' getting suffocated as 
just described, because they remain at or near the 
spot where they were born, and do not roam about 
much. But after the first half of this stage is over, a 
new instinct makes its appearance, and it is accom- 
panied with a new danger, which is both alarming and 
insidious. This second instinct of the trout is to fol- 
low a current of water wherever they can find it; 
usually, but not always, following the current up 
stream, and diving into any corners, however small, 
where their delicate perceptions detect the entrance 
or exit of a current of water. Then woe to the trout 
breeder if his troughs are not perfectly tight ! for if 
there is a loose joint in the box, or a nail-hole or aper- 
ture under or about the screen where water comes in 
or out, these little creatures will be sure to find it, 
and one by one will go through it in thousands, even 
if the crevice is not much larger than would admit a 
snow-flake. If a beginner were told how small a 
crevice a . six weeks' trout will go through, and has 
gone through, he would say it was simply incredible. 



CARE OF ALEVINS. I45 

Great vigilance is now required ; and wherever there 
is a suspected place, a fine wire screen should be 
placed below it to catch any that escape. I once 
noticed a drop or two of water trickling firom the head 
of one of my hatching troughs, and immediately placed 
a large screen under it. Two days afterwards I found 
nearly a thousand young trout on the screen, although 
I did not then, and could never afterwards, discover any 
hole for them to get through. The wire netting at the 
regular outlet should also be particularly watched, as 
the constant cleaning of the screen wears out the wire, 
and may make a fracture in it before it is suspected. 

The trout at this age are the incarnation of perver- 
sity. They will go just the opposite way from which 
you want to have them, and if there is any place where 
you do not want them to go, they will be sure to col- 
lect in it in vast numbers, and when you try to drive 
them away they will dive their heads into the gravel 
and stick to the spot with a truly wonderful tenacity ; 
or if you succeed in forcing them off a little way, they 
will return with redoubled momentum, and charge 
again and again, with a persistency which is as sur- 
prising as it is annoying. As the tissue of their struc- 
ture is such an exceedingly delicate one that they can- 
not be pushed forcibly, even with a feather, they would 
be very difficult to manage if you wished to have them 
leave any particular spot where they had gathered, 
were it not for the knowledge of one instinct that they 
have. This instinct is to avoid agitated water. They 
have a great dislike to troubled waters, and will usually 
leave with one accord any spot where the water is 
7 J 



146 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

violently disturbed, and if they have had a good stirring 
up will not generally return to it soon again. Therefore, 
when you wish to drive them out of a hole or corner, 
agitate the water violently with a feather, or, better 
yet, dip up a few cups of water and pour into the 
corner from a little height above. The effect will be 
magical. In a few moments the place which it might 
have taken half an hour to clear otherwise will be 
willingly deserted. 

Though so very frail at this stage, the alevins will 
stand the cold wonderfully. I have frozen them sev- 
eral times so that they were glued tight on to the ice 
and could not stir, and in most instances it did not 
seem to hurt them at all. I have taken pains to keep 
these " frozen thaws " by themselves, where they could 
be watched for some weeks afterwards. In some in- 
stances they appeared as well as any trout of their age, 
and showed no signs of being injured by the freezing. 

If, however, they are frightened while they are 
freezing in or thawing out, they will, in trying to 
extricate themselves from their icy fetters, tear them- 
selves so that they will afterwards die. 

Alevins will also live a long while without change 
or aeration of the water, if the temperature is low. 
A hundred young alevins will live a day or two in a 
gill of water at 34°, incredible as it seems. This is 
consequently a very favorable time to transport them. 
As they can stand the cold, you can, by reducing the 
water to a very low temperature with ice, send them a 
great distance in small bulk without change or aeration 
of water. 



CARE OF ALEVINS. 1 4/ 

The alevins are also very hardy, as respects general 
causes of sickness or injury in their every-day hfe. 
If you have run a good ripple of water over the eggs 
when hatching, and have kept it up with the young fish 
after hatching, your loss in the yolk-sac stage will be 
very slight indeed, sometimes almost nothing. 

A few will die in the act of emerging from the shell, 
and some will have what, for want of a better name, 
might be called the blue swelling^ which is fatal ; but 
with these exceptions you will lose very few indeed 
from disease during the yolk-sac period. 

Some will be born with curved spines, or with two 
heads or two vertebral columns, but they are likely to 
live until the feeding period. It may be well to add 
here, that now is the time to collect any monstrosities 
that you may wish to preserve in spirits, such as 
double-headed fish, double-bodied fish, and the like. 
The perfectly formed fish are the most beautiful 
and most curiously formed in reality ; but you will 
probably want to preserve some of the misshapen 
freaks of nature, nevertheless, and now is the time to 
do it. In this instance there is no cruelty, in it, as 
these deformed creatures would all die a lingering 
death before long, if left to themselves. I never knew 
any of the misshapen fish to grow up, except those 
whose spines, after a curve or apparent joint, resume^ 
or nearly resume, the original line of the vertebra. 
These will sometimes grow up and do well, even 
where there are two deflections or joints in the back. 
I sent one of that description to market year before 

* Green calls it the " dropsy." 



148 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

last that was three years old, which, from having a 
dark skin and a crook in his back, my friends had 
nicknamed the " Black Crook." 

The alevin stage is, on the whole, the easiest time 
for the trout breeder of the trout's whole life ; and if 
everything is right at the outset when the eggs hatch, 
the alevins will be almost no trouble at all. 

At this stage there are no eggs to pick over, no 
mouths to feed, not much care as to the amount of 
water supply, and none of the anxiety about their lives 
which comes a little later. This rest in the cares 
and labors of the trout raiser, however, is only the lull 
before the storm. No sooner is this stage over, and 
the trout get well to feeding, than work and danger 
begin again, as will be seen in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER IV. 

REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 

Section I. — Progress of the Young Fry, and 
General Directions. 

WE have now come to the most perplexing and 
the most inscrutable of all the branches of trout 
raising, namely, growing the young fry. How to hatch 
the eggs, which would hatch themselves if simply let 
alone by their enemies, was a problem comparatively 
easy in its solution, although this was a grand achieve- 
ment at first, and reflects great credit on those who 
pioneered it through, the more because it was suc- 
cess in hatching the eggs that first popularized the 
art of fish culture and laid the foundations of the 
present wide-spread interest in it. But to make the 
young trout live, which have equally delicate and more 
complex organizations than the eggs, to find them the 
food which is wholesome for them, while it is wholly 
artificial, to anticipate wants which are not even 
known, to discover derangements of organs, when 
the organs themselves are microscopic, and to avert 
diseases without a glimpse of their causes, — in short, 
to make creatures live, so frail that a touch will almost 
kill them, and that seem to die without a cause, — this 
was a field of study apparently so obscure and intan- 
gible that it presented great difficulties. 



150 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Here the triumphant skill which hatched the eggs 
successfully was baffled ; and it seemed for a time 
as if the wonderful art which had promised so much 
was to come to a stand-still at this gulf between the 
eggs and the yearling trout, a gulf which seemed as if 
it could not be bridged. 

Those who made the earliest practical experiments 
in this country will undoubtedly recall, with me, the 
anxiety which was at one time felt lest the difficulties 
of bridging this chasm would prove insurmountable. 
This task has, happily, now been performed. Rearing 
young trout is no longer a problematical thing, it is a 
fait accompU. 

The question is not now, Can young trout be raised ? 
but How many can do it, and under what circum- 
stances can it be done successfully? 

As the yolk sac wears off, the dense masses of little 
alevins begin to separate, and assume a more indi- 
vidual existence. They seek to avoid, rather than 
to crowd, one another, and their ftns being developed 
sufficiently, they can now rise and balance them- 
selves in the water. The awkward, unwieldy body 
has acquired the graceful, symmetrical form of a fish, 
and each individual, taking a place for himself, heads 
vigorously up stream, and soon shows by his move- 
ments that he is on the lookout for food. 

I have noticed that it is almost always a matter of 
anxiety to beginners how they will know when it is 
time to begin to feed the young fry. This anxiety is 
wholly unnecessary, because when the trout are ready 
to feed, they will let you know it plainly enough by 
taking the food which you offer them. 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 151 

You need not give yourself any trouble about the 
matter, till you see them all up in the water, balancing 
themselves nicely, and heading bravely against the 
current. If you now throw in a little food, or any 
fine particles, indeed, of anything whatever, they will, 
if they are ready to eat, instantly turn out of line to 
seize the particles floating by them. 

If they do this, you may know that it is time to 
feed them. If tney pay no attention to what they 
see in the water, let them go for that day, and try 
them again the next, and so on, till they leave their 
places to snatch it, and from that time feed them reg- 
ularly every day. Once will be enough the first day, 
twice the second, and, after that, four times a day for 
two months. From this time they should be fed two 
or three times daily until cold weather. I think the 
best food for them at first is liver, and curd made 
from sour milk, mixed in about equal proportions, 
or, still better, with two parts liver and one part curd. 
The young fish at this age, as may be supposed, can 
take only the finest particles of food. The curd, 
therefore, should be made as fine grained and moist 
as possible. The liver should also be reduced to the 
smallest possible particles. This is accomplished in 
various ways, but the way that I have found the most 
satisfactory and the most expeditious is to grate the 
liver on a common tin lemon-grater or cheese-grater. 
You must be careful to have the holes small enough 
at first to admit only very fine particles ; they should 
not be over one tenth of an inch in diameter. 

The grater should be placed horizontally on a piece 



152 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

of board or marble slab, and the liver grated on it ; 
what goes through will for the most part be fine 
enough for the fish to eat. There are other ways of 
preparing the liver, I am aware j but you can prepare 
as much this way in ten minutes, as by any other 
method that I know of in half an hour. It was for- 
merly thought best to feed the liver and curd to the 
fish through a small fine screen, so that no particles 
should fall to the bottom and remain unconsumed 
because of being too large, but since the discovery 
of the use of earth in absorbing the foul matter col- 
lecting on the bottom this precaution is unnecessary ; 
still there is no objection to it, except that it is not 
so simple and makes more work. 

The method of feeding adopted at the Cold Spring 
trout ponds is to mix the curd and prepared liver on 
a small paddle, say eighteen inches long and three 
wide at the blade, with a common case-knife, taking 
care to pulverize and separate the particles with the 
knife very thoroughly. The blade is then dipped in 
the water and the food moistened. It is then mixed 
and pulverized still more with the flat blade of the 
knife, very much as a glazier mixes putty, or a painter 
his paint, on a pallet. When sufficiently moistened 
and separated, to prevent any adhesion of the parti- 
cles the paddle is again dipped in the water, and 
little by little the food is washed off, till the fish have 
had enough. When you first make your appearance, 
the fish, whether from playfulness or from actual fear, 
will dart away and try to get out of sight, but the 
presence of the food in the water will soon attract 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY, 1 53 

them again, and they will swarm around it from all 
quarters. If you have plenty of time and patience, 
and not too many fish, you can collect them all in 
one or two places, by waiting for them to come up ; 
but if you have a great many and need to be expedi- 
tious, you will probably resort to feeding more rapidly 
and in several places. You can begin feeding, if you 
like, with the yolk of eggs, boiled a half-hour and 
pulverized very fine. This is sometimes more con- 
venient and accessible, when you have only a few fish, 
than the liver and curd feed, and some persons con- 
tinue to use the egg for several months ; but this is 
not recommended. It is more expensive, it makes 
the worst possible corruption when it does sink to the 
bottom and foul the water, and I think it is not so 
wholesome or nutritious as a mixed meat and curd 
diet. ' Liver alone answers very well, but neither egg 
nor curd alone will do. It would be a great improve- 
ment, in the way of feeding the young, fry, if you could 
prepare some self-acting contrivance, which would 
feed out the required amount of food gradually and 
continually all day, as, for instance, a closed box of 
fine wire netting, partly filled with food and placed 
under a fall, in such a way that the water will force 
out the food, little by little, all day. The box should 
be made so that it could be taken apart and the net- 
ting thoroughly washed and cleaned every day, as 
otherwise it would soon become so foul as to be 
injurious. Such a contrivance would save a great 
deal of time and trouble in feeding, and seems to be 
a more natural and wholesome way than to gorge 



154 DOMESTICATED TROU'T. 

them at intervals of three or four hours, and keep them 
in abstinence the rest of the time. When the young 
fry have eaten enough is a question not easily settled, 
although it has been asked very many times. I used to 
think that they would not eat too much, and I cannot 
now say that I ever knew of an instance of a death 
caused directly by over-eating ; and, as a general thing, 
I still think there is more danger of not feeding 
enough, than of feeding too much. On the other 
hand, overfeeding may possibly increase the liability 
to disease, when the fish are very much crowded. I 
do not believe that when there is plenty of room and 
water, they will ever eat enough to hurt themselves ; 
but when you have many confined in a small space, 
I would advise the exercise of some caution about 
overfeeding. 

The most destructive instance of the ravages of 
disease in my experience was with the best-fed trout 
I ever had. The contents of two boxes, twenty thou- 
sand young fry^ were attacked by parasites, which 
swept them all off in one week. On Monday morn- 
ing they were the most robust and best-fed trout I 
had ever seen of their age, and on Saturday night the 
whole twenty thousand were dead. No others were 
attacked. I do not know that overfeeding had any- 
thing to do with the appearance of the parasites. I 
only mention the coincidence for the benefit of future 
observers, and would add that I think that over- 
crowding the fish had much more to do with their 
death than overfeeding. As a rule then, I repeat, you 
need not be afraid of the young fry's eating too much. 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 55 

Their digestive organs are wonderfully active, and 
they will digest ^ almost as fast as you can feed them, 
and you will need a good deal of patience to feed till 
they refuse to eat. I never knew any healthy young 
fry of mine to decline eating but once, and then I had 
them fed incessantly for two hours, at the end of 
which time they gave up beaten. The young fry will 
repay you well for feeding them well, for there is 
hardly any creature which shows the effects of good 
feeding so quickly and strikingly as young trout. They 
appear sometimes to grow, almost like flies, on ample 
allowance, and one or two good meals will make a 
hungry young trout seem to double his bulk, and this 
is not wholly an illusion either. But although they 
are not likely to eat too much, they will not only at 
this age, but at all ages, take too large pieces of food at 
a time, and will sometimes kill themselves in this way. 
When you find a trout dead, with his head much 
swollen laterally, and both eyes forced outwards, you 
may know that he killed himself by bolting his food. 

We have said nothing so far in this chapter about 
removing the young fry from the hatching troughs, 
and, indeed, this removal is not necessary for a week 
or two. The young fry will do as well in the hatch- 
ing troughs, if the water is raised an inch or two, 'as 
anywhere else at first, but they must be thinned out 
very soon after they begin to feed. If you engage in 

* Bertram compares the digestion of some fishes' stomachs to 
the action of fire. Harvest of the Sea, p. 

Lyman says of pickerel, that they are " mere machines for the 
assimilation of other organisms." Mass. Fisheries, Report, 
1871, p. 17. 



156 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

the business of selling young fry, this thinning out will 
come naturally in the course of your sales, and will 
need no special attention ; but if you do not sell them 
off, you must take out enough from each box or 
trough to leave only a safe number together. The 
number which it is safe to leave in a given space 
you must learn by experience, as so much depends 
upon the water supply, the character and temperature 
of the water, and other circumstances, that the number 
cannot be set with much definiteness for all places. 
You need not, however, be afraid to keep two hun- 
dred to the square foot, if they are shaded, till the first 
of May. By that time they will be ready for their 
summer quarters. You will notice that the young 
fry in the troughs, soon after beginning to feed, will 
seem to divide into two bodies, one consisting of the 
larger and stronger ones, at the head of the trough 
just below the fall, and the other consisting of the 
smaller and weaker ones settling down towards the 
outlet screen. 

The division into these two classes will be main- 
tained with more or less distinctness through the year 
and afterwards. The cause of the separation is, that 
some are really weaker and smaller than others, and 
these will avoid the more violent water and the pres- 
ence of the larger ones, who would drive them away 
if they tried to stay with them. This division of the 
two classes becomes more marked as they get a little 
older, because the weaker ones are driven back and 
are obliged to take the food, the water, and the range 
that is left them by their superiors, who are all the 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 57 

time getting the lion's share of everything. The effect, 
of course, is to increase the contrast more and more 
every day. This effect can, however, be offset, in some 
degree, by taking pains to give better care and feed 
to the lower ones, and this should always be done. 
Indeed, by feeding the lower ones more than usual, 
and neglecting the upper ones, you can bring them 
somewhat together in point of locality, though never 
in point of size. I think that it is also a good way 
to take out all the lower division, and put them in an 
enclosure by themselves. They will never be as large 
fish as the others, but they will then, at any rate, be 
freed from the tyranny of the larger ones, and will im- 
prove correspondingly. 

You may notice, too, that sometimes some of the 
lower young fry get against the screens, and perhaps 
die from the effect of it. There is no need whatever of 
this. If they get against the screens, it is because 
they are weak, and you may know that their weakness 
has come either from their being too much crowded, 
too little fed, or from being actually sick. The remedy 
for the first and second is obvious ; and the third case 
ought not to have occurred ; but in all three cases 
more feeding will bring them up. They are weak, and 
need to be fed to be made strong again. Therefore, 
when the little creatures get against the screens, or 
show a tendency that way, feed them more, and con- 
tinue doing so till they come up strong again. Do 
not turn down the water, as is sometimes done, when 
they are weak and get against the screens, for this^ 
only makes them weaker ; but keep the water on, un- 



158 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

less it was too violent to begin with, and make the 
fish come up against it by feeding, which they will 
do if not sick or too crowded. 

There is a little trick which should be practised on 
them when they show this tendency to collect too 
much at the lower screen. It is well known that trout 
seek the deeper places and darker bottoms of any 
shallow stream. By taking advantage of this instinct, 
you can make most of your trout stay where you wish ; 
so when they collect too far down the trough, fill up 
the lower end about half an inch or an inch deep 
for a foot or so from the screen with light-colored 
sand. This will make the water more shallow here, 
and the bed of the trough of a lighter shade, and the 
fish will abandon it at once for deeper and darker 
places farther up stream. The force of the current 
is now, of course, increased near the outlet by this 
change, and an inexperienced person might suppose 
that if the young fry were collected down near the 
screen in slow water, they would be carried down 
much more by swift water. But this is an error. If 
the fish are not sick, their desire to get out of the 
shallow, exposed place will make them stem the cur- 
rent till they find a place above it less objectionable 
to them. The worst possible thing you can do, if you 
want to keep the young fry away from the screens, is 
to make the water slower by deepening it at the 
screen. It has just the opposite effect from that which 
is sought. 

For the first two or three weeks after beginning to 
feed, — we are now supposing that the young trout 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 59 

remain in the hatching troughs, — the appearance of 
things is very bright. Indeed, there is no more hope- 
ful time in the trout breeder's year than that when the 
young fish just get to feeding well. The dangers and 
hardships of the long winter's hatching are over. He 
has a fine lot of healthy, thriving trout. They feed 
well, they look well, and do not show a sign of a pos- 
sibility of their dying. Everything goes on swim- 
mingly, and unless he is more than human, or less, he 
will invariably draw the flattering picture to himself 
of what these thousands of tiny things will be three 
summers hence, each weighing a half-pound apiece or 
more. It is certainly an elating prospect. 

But behold, at the end of about three weeks, an ap- 
palling change comes over this happy vision. It comes 
on very unobtrusively in the beginning, and the first 
sign of it which you discover is merely the gathering 
of two or three fish in a corner where the water is 
stiller than the rest. On examination, you observe 
nothing unusual about them, except that, to use an 
expressive Dutch- Americanism, they appear '' logy,"* 
avoid the running water, and eat languidly, or per- 
haps do not eat at all. This seems a very trifling 
circumstance ; but to an experienced eye it is start- 
lingly significant, for it is sure to be the forerunner 
of wholesale disaster. The next day the number of 
disaffected ones will be increased to a dozen, perhaps, 
and very likely some of them will be heading down 
stream. This number will steadily increase. Soon 
they will begin to drop down dead, by ones and twos 

* From the Dutch log^ dull, stupid. 



l60 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

at first, and then by dozens, then by hundreds, and, 
unless some remedy is applied, seventy-five per cent 
will die the next month, and perhaps all ; and many of 
them — we are still supposing that they have remained 
in the hatching troughs — will have a little round ulcer 
just on the top of the skull, which, when pricked, will 
discharge a thin, watery fluid. This is the stage, I take 
it, where Green's book says of their dying, that the 
cause is not known, nor the remedy. I must disagree 
with him. The cause is known, and the remedy is 
known also. The cause of this mortality is twofold. 
In the first place, the food which has been given them 
has to some extent, however carefully it may have 
been fed out to them, fallen to the bottom, and has 
formed a thin layer over the gravel, which has now 
had time to become putrescent and has fouled the 
water with its exhalations. 

In the second place, the diet upon which the fish 
have been kept, although the best known and very nu- 
tritious, is deficient in some element indispensable to 
the health of the trout. It is like the experiment of 
feeding the dog wholly on olive oil, — the most nutri- 
tious thing in the world, — but which soon brings on 
an ulcerating disease that kills him in not many weeks. 
The remedy for both these causes of disease is the free 
application of common earthy and it is a certain and 
effective one. 

I was led to this discovery somewhat in this way : 
I found my young fry dying by thousands, as just 
described, and those that were left losing their appe- 
tites and avoiding the current. I felt sure that the 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. l6l 

fine, thin film of mouldy matter which could be seen 
on the bottom was fouling the water, and I removed 
the fish to clean the troughs. This revived them some- 
what, and they began to eat again, but they lacked 
their natural vivacity and looked lank and ill-favored. 
I then began to reflect carefully on the matter, and it 
occurred to me that their artificial food might be want- 
ing in some tonic element, indispensable to health, 
anH that liver and curd and nothing else might be to 
trout what olive oil and nothing else was to the dog. 
The symptoms certainly indicated it. 

I might have got no farther, but I noticed that some 
of the young fry, which by accident happened to be 
where the mud was occasionally disturbed, did better 
and appeared thrifty. I also remembered that the wild 
trout in the natural brooks are never so lively and 
voracious as just after the streams have been mud- 
died by a shower. Then it suddenly flashed upon 
me, that mud or earth, with its multiplicity of constitu- 
ents, might possibly contain the deficient element. 
At the same time, I remembered the great absorbing 
power of earth, which might perhaps absorb the foul 
exhalations from the bottom, at the same time that it 
supplied the needed tonic. 

I shared the common prejudice against muddying 
the water where the trout were ; but the crisis was an 
imperative one, and I determined to solve the problem. 
-T poured in earth, enough to cover the bottom half an 
inch, making the water so thick with mud that every 
fish was obscured with it. I watched anxiously for 
the water to clear, to see how they came out of it. 

K 



1 62 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

The effect was magical. It had revived the mall. A 
change for the better was decidedly noticeable at once. 
In twenty-four hours the sick ones were nearly them- 
selves again, and in two days they were all better fish 
than they ever were before. 

On another occasion large numbers of my young 
fry had become sickly and were failing rapidly. They 
had begun to collect against the screens, and there 
was evidently a bad time coming very soon. This was 
on the 5th of March. This time they had been feed- 
ing only about two weeks. I applied the earth plen- 
tifully, with the same effect as before. On the 7 th 
they were much improved. On the 8th they were all 
well again and off the screens. Earth or mud is the 
last thing one would suppose suitable for a fish, so 
associated in our minds with pure, clean water ; yet it 
is an indispensable constituent in the diet of young 
trout, and unless they get it, either naturally or artifi- 
cially, they will not thrive. I repeat once more, we 
are supposmg the young fry to be in the hatching 
troughs still, and supplied with water from the spring. 
Of course, if they are nourished with brook-water, 
which brings down more or less mud with it, this dis- 
ease will not break out, and the fish will not require 
the artificial introduction of earth ; but they must get 
it in some way, and unless it is already in the water, 
it must be furnished artificially, or the fish will lan- 
guish.* 

I am not prepared to say what kind of earth is the 

* I have sometimes found the stomach of a wild trout nearly 
half full of gravel. 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 63 

best, but I think that the earth from just under a toler- 
ably rich sod is as good as any, if not better. It is a 
very good way to put the whole sod in the trough or 
box. The fish will get off of it what they want, and 
the presence of the vegetable growth in the water is 
favorable to their health. 

Muck I have sometimes thought the best, and it is said 
to be the most powerful of earth absorbents, but I have 
also had misgivings that the muck sometimes had 
something injurious in- it. It may be only a fancy, 
however. At all events, the earth just under a fresh 
green sod answers the purpose, and is good and whole- 
some. The application of the earth should be renewed 
as often as the fish seem to require it, and, indeed, it is 
best not to wait till they show signs of wanting it, but 
to give it to them often, and keep sods in all the time ; 
and whenever you perceive anything in the troughs 
that is likely to foul the water, throw a handful of earth 
over it. 

If you have a pride in keeping a clean gravelly bed 
to your troughs, you can cover over the earth, after a 
day or so, with clean gravel, and it will look as well as 
before ; but you must give them earth again soon. 

As the spring advances the young fry will continue 
to grow, and one day's routine in taking care of them 
will be very much like another through the summer. 
This does not imply, however, that the work is mo- 
notonous or dull. On the contrary, it is exceedingly 
interesting, and the more closely you observe them the 
more interesting the care of them becomes. You will, 
learn to distinguish individuals from one another, and 



164 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

to notice individual peculiarities ; and it will be a source 
of great pleasure to see them growing daily in strength 
and stature, and taking on by almost imperceptible 
degrees the ways and appearance of mature trout. 
Indeed, you cannot spend an hour or so a week more 
profitably than by studying the little fellows minutely, 
with your eyes as close to the surface of the water as 
you can get. This is the way to study theai ; and if 
you want to obtain an insight into the nature of trout, 
and have signal success in raising them, this is the 
thing to do. 

The young fry in their growth probably will not 
keep pace with your wishes at first. Still they are 
really growing rapidly, and if their apparently slow 
progress makes you impatient, take out one of them 
any time in the summer and compare it with one of 
your preserved specimens of a day old. You will be 
gratified with the contrast, and will see that they have 
doubled their size many times over, though they had 
appeared to remain nearly stationary. They are also 
getting their flesh hard and solid, as you may see by 
taking out a four weeks' trout on a piece of board or 
glass and letting it dry, and doing the same again in 
the summer with a six months' trout. The first speci- 
men will leave hardly more than an impression of the 
fish's form, as thin as tissue. The second will show 
solidity as well as figure. 

The young fry will continue to grow and require 
more food until winter sets in. In the mean while 
they will demand constant watching and care, the 
nature of which will be described more fully in the 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 65 

next chapter, and also in the one on the diseases of 
young trout. 

Section II. — What to do to make Young 
Trout live. 

I. Have healthy, ivell-fed breeders. When a young 
trout drops down dead during the first few months of 
his life, a beginner is apt to think that the cause origi- 
nated the same day or the same week, which is as 
unphilosophical as to suppose that deaths among the 
human race, resulting from feeble constitutions or 
hereditary consumption, were caused by something 
that happened the day or the week on which the death 
occurred. 

To discover and remove the causes of death among 
young trout, we must go back of the young fish's life, 
back of the eggs themselves, to the breeders which 
produced the eggs. This is self-evident, and yet it is 
often overlooked. In order to have healthy fry, you 
must have healthy eggs. To secure healthy eggs, you 
must have healthy, well-fed breeders. The progeny of 
puny, half-starved, half-suffocated fish cannot be as 
strong and healthy as those of well-grown, well-fed fish, 
with plenty of range and water. Therefore, if you 
want your young trout to live, give your breeders a 
good supply of water, feed them well and regularly, 
and keep them m good condition, especially from May 
to November. 

Large eggs, on the whole, are better than small ones. 
They produce larger fish j and, other things being equal, 



1 66 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

the larger fry, it is observed, thrive better than the 
smaller ones. 

Now the secret of getting large eggs is not to use 
large-sized breeders, for a two-pound brook trout pro- 
duces no larger eggs than a half-pound brook trout, 
though they are more in number. Large eggs are the 
result of keeping the breeders in water that warms 
up in the spring and summer. It is true, if it becomes 
too warm, say above 70°, it is injurious; but water 
that stands at 65° in the summer will make larger 
eggs than water at 5^°, and very cold spring water, 
say at 45°, will always develop small eggs. The rea- 
son is obvious. We know the rule is throughout the 
animal kingdom, that warmth, when not extreme, fa- 
vors growth, and as the temperature of the fish's 
body corresponds to the temperature of the water,* it 
naturally results that the eggs developed in the warmth 
of 65° will be larger than those developed at the cold 
point of 45°. 

2. Develop strong and healthy einhryos in the egg. 
You must not suppose, when you find your trout dy- 
ing in April and May, that the mortality is necessarily 
caused by something that has happened since they 
hatched. The causes may date back half-way through 
the period of incubation or more. I have seen trout 
embryos with the eye-spots just appearing, which I 
knew could not live three months after coming out, 
although they hatched like other eggs, and seemed like 

* The temperature of the fish's body follows the temperature 
of the surrounding water, but keeps a little, perhaps two de- 
grees, above it. 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 16/ 

other trout for weeks. The reason was. that they were 
sickly and feeble embryos, which had not vitality 
enough in them to grow up. 

In order to have strong and healthy trout that will 
live, you must have strong and healthy embryos to 
begin with. This is so obvious, that it seems trivial to 
mention it. Yet I have seen persons treat eggs in 
such a way that the fish from them could not possibly 
live to grow up, and wonder three months afterwards 
what made them die. To insure strong and hardy 
embryos, the suggestions in the chapter on hatching 
eggs should be carefully observed. The eggs should 
not be crowded too much. They should have plenty 
of water, though not too much, running over them. 
This water should be in constant circulation. The 
two kinds of fungus, alga and byssus, should be abso- 
lutely excluded. All sediment should be kept from 
the eggs, and, in the writer's opinion, they should be 
hatched in the dark. If you observe these rules, you 
will have strong and healthy trout from your eggs, and 
of these rules I should say that the most important 
are, to avoid fungus and still water. 

3. Provide a suitable place for the young fry when 
they begin to feed. We remarked that the hatching 
troughs would do very well for the young trout for 
the first few weeks after feeding. This is true, if the 
fish are thinned out sufficiently, and a clean layer of 
gravel or sand put over the winter hatching bed ; but 
the hatching troughs are not favorable to growth, and 
usually are not so convenient for feeding as other 
places in which the fish might be kept. It is therefore 



1 68 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

desirable to change them before summer, and it is very 
important to put them in a suitable place when they 
are changed ; and to effect this the following points 
should be secured, namely : — 

The young trout, when removed from the hatching 
troughs, should be kept, — 

Where they will feed well. 

Where they will be safe from their natural enemies. 

Where nothing can get in and nothing can get out. 

Where no fungus can come to them. 

Where the water cannot run over. 

Where they cannot remain permanently out of sight. 

Where the water supply cannot be cut off by accident. 

Where the fish can have new, unused water. 

Where they can find shade. 

Where there is plenty of room. 

The first six points were fully unfolded in the chap- 
ter on rearing boxes ; so I will here simply refer the 
reader to that chapter, and pass on to the considera- 
tion of the remaining points. 

It is essential that the young fry be kept where there 
is no possibility of the water supply being cut off, even 
by the most unexpected accident. It is ikio. possibility 
that you want to guard against, not the probahiUiy, 
My excuse for mentioning so obvious a principle is, 
that persons are so careless about this very thing. 
Though they may have expended hundreds of dollars 
to get their fish where they are, and have taken pains 
to have everything else safe, they will sometimes 
leave a faucet or a spout in such a way that it is quite 
possible for some accident to close the faucet or mis- 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 69 

place the spout, and cut off the whole supply of water 
from the fish below. 

I recall now several instances in which most disas- 
trous results have been so caused. This point is the 
more important, because the consequences of neglect 
are so very fatal ; in the hot weather, when the young 
fry are being raised, two hours without change of water 
being often sufficient to kill a whole box or pond full. 

They should be kept where new, unused water will 
run over them. This is very important. At first, 
when they begin to feed, the effete matter coming 
from them is very slight in quantit}', and harmless ; but 
it rapidly increases with the growth of the fish, and 
becomes a prolific source of impurity and disease, as 
can be easily comprehended when it is considered 
what the amount must be from one thousand to ten 
thousand fish feeding almost hourly. 

The water, therefore, that is used for the nursery, 
should be fresh from the spring or brook, and should 
not be that which has run over other trout above, un 
less the stream has run far enough to purify itself. 

The place in which they are kept should be well 
shaded. Sunlight fosters the growth of fungi and con- 
fervae, and predisposes the young fish to some of the 
diseases to which they are subject ; and when disease 
breaks out it makes bad matters worse. The young 
fry should be therefore guarded against it, as well as 
the eggs. Shade never killed a trout yet, young or 
old. Sunlight has lalled a great many. It cannot be 
denied that trout often come out voluntarily into the 
sun, but they should nevertheless always be placed so 
8 



lyO DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

that they can take their choice, and not be obliged to 
stay in the sun because there is no shade. 

Their place of confinement must not be too much 
crowded. Be very careful to guard against this, and 
do it in season. It is very injurious to keep young 
trout too close together. They will not grow as well. 
The water breathed over so many times becomes vi- 
tiated ; the foul matter thrown off by the fish in- 
creases the evil ; and in time disease will break out 
among them, and rage all the w^orse because of the 
very thing that caused it, namely, the overcrowding. 

Anything which combines all the points above men- 
tioned will answer for a nursery for the young fry, wheth- 
er it is a pond, or trough, or rearing box, or what not. 

I recommend the use of a rearing box, because it 
does embrace these points. Anything else that does 
will answer as well, but it will be a rearing box still, 
either on a large scale or a small one. It is the com- 
bination oi principles which makes the rearing box, 
and not its name, or form, or material. It should be 
added here, that is a good plan to keep water plants* 
in the nurseries of young fish. I will not say that it 
is indispensable, but I think it is very important in- 
deed. 

Trout consume oxygen, and return carbon. Water- 
plants consume carbon, and return oxygen. By put- 
ting plants and fish together, therefore, we avail our- 
selves of one of nature's great universal agencies in 
balancing vital forces against eLt'h other, and main- 

* For list of water plants suitable for trout ponds, see Appen- 
dix III. p. 275. 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. I /I 

taining the equilibrium on which the continuance of 
organic Hfe depends.^ This is a good a priori reason 
in itself. Besides this, we have the facts that the plants 
do in practice improve the water, prevent disease, give 
shelter to the young fry, and furnish more or less nat- 
ural food for them. They also absorb much of the 
feculence of the fish for nutriment.f 

The larger the young fry grow, the larger the place 
they can be trusted in ; and it is never desirable to keep 
them in a smaller place than perfect safety requires ; for 
the more range they have, other things being equal, the 
better they will do. Accordingly, as they continue to 
grow, increase their range, and by the ist of Septem- 
ber or a little later, when they take their food like old 
trout, that is, spring for it from their lair and whirl, 
they can be put into a pond suitable for larger trout, 
and treated very much as the larger trout are treated. 
By this time they are much hardier, and less suscep- 
tible to invisible sources of injury ; they do not stay 
away alone and get lost, they are better able to take 
care of themselves ; you can throw them their food 
very much as you do the larger fish, and they can 

* Self-preserving aquaria have been contrived by lining the 
sides and bottom of a tank with the most oxygen-giving water 
plants, so that the fish {not trout) confined in them have lived 
without a change of water. I am told by a gentleman who has 
had experience with Barnum's aquaria, that the fish kept in these 
self-preserving tanks without change of water thrived better 
than those in the ordinary tanks which had water running through 
them all the time. 

t The introduction of fresh- water snails accomplishes the same 
end, but snails are destructive to fish eggs and very young fish. 



172 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

be trusted in a trout pond proper. The pond, how- 
ver, must be coveredj and the fish must still be pro- 
tected from rats, minks, snakes, and especially herons 
and kingfishers, which will destroy great quantities of 
them, if allowed to. 

4. Take good care of the fish. Now, having bred 
from a healthy stock, and having developed strong, 
healthy embryos, and having provided a suitable place 
for the young fry, only one thing more is required for 
success, and that is to take good care of them. 

If you take good care of trout, I think there are 
ninety chances in a hundred that you will raise them. 
I know that there is a good deal of scepticism (I beg 
the reader to excuse the digression which follows) 
about the practicability of keeping young fry alive 
through the first six months of feeding, and I am 
aware that some of the best authorities say that a con- 
siderable percentage will die unavoidably during that 
time. Mr. Stephen H. Ainsworth, in a letter to the 
writer, once said that a considerable percentage of the 
eggs when impregnated were premature, and conse- 
quently produced an imperfectly developed fish which 
could not live. Theodore Lyman, in the Report of the 
Massachusetts Committee of Fisheries, 1870, says : 
" All remained remarkably healthy till May, when a 
certain number were observed to be weakly. It is 
likely that they were naturally sickly, and, when the 
yolk sac was gone, they had not enough vitality to 
feed."* And Seth Green speaks in his book on trout 
culture as if there were necessarily a great mortality 

* Massachusetts Fisheries, Report, 1870, p. 33. 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 73 

among the young fry, and says, " We don't know what 
is the matter with them, nor how to cure them.'"^ 

Now I wish at the outset to express distinctly my 
deference to authorities so high, — indeed, I know of 
none higher, — but I must, nevertheless, venture to 
disagree with them if they mean that there is any 
necessary inherent cause of death in the young fry 
which cannot be removed. Some will die, say five 
per cent, though it ought to be less than this, of weak 
constitutions. They are born into the world so weak- 
ly constituted that they cannot stand the wear and 
tear of life, and must die. I admit that there may be 
perhaps five per cent of these necessary, unavoidable 
deaths ; but that the rest come into being already 
doomed to premature death, or that young trout have 
any mysterious or peculiar inherent cause of death in 
them, any more than young calves, or pigs, or chick- 
ens, I do not believe. In the present state of infor- 
mation of the art, 5^oung trout fry may be more liable 
to accidents than other young domesticated creatures, 
and it may be more difficult to guard against their 
diseases ; but this is another thing. Careless breed- 
ing may, and careless hatching certainly will, pro- 
duce a progeny of young trout of which ninety per 
cent will die ; but this is also another thing. Careful 
breeding and hatching will produce trout which are 
just as likely to live, in my opinion, as the same num- 
ber of lambs or chickens ; and if the young fry die, it 
is not because of any mysterious, innate cause peculiar 
to them because they are trout, but it is because they 
* Trout Culture, p. 42. 



174 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

were killed, deliberately killed, by external causes, 
just as much as Iambs or chickens are killed by 
storms, or by parasites, or from starvation or poison. 
It is true that they are killed from ignorance of their 
wants, and not from wilful neglect, but it is the same 
thing abstractly, — the cause of death is external and 
removable, and not innate and necessary. Their 
wants are peculiar, of course, and more occult and in- 
tangible than those of pigs and colts, and to a begin- 
ner it will sometimes seem as if they died without be- 
ing diseased. But if they were as large as pigs and 
colts, and could be studied as easily, I do not think 
their wants would be found to be any more mysteri- 
ous or peculiar ; and if the causes of disease could be 
magnified, so as to be observed and studied clearly, I 
think that no more trout would die when nothing was 
the matter with them. 

I am furthermore convinced that study and expe- 
rience will eventually clear up this subject, notwith- 
standing the difficulties which surround it, and that 
at some time it will be known how to raise trout, and 
make them live, as well as it is known how to raise 
turkeys and chickens. I believe that there are energy 
and intelligence enough now interested in the cause 
to accomplish this end. I take this ground, partly 
because any other is unphilosophical and uncompli- 
mentary to the intelligence of those who are study- 
ing the art, and partly because the facts of experience 
confirm it. Who that sees the healthy young fry and 
yearlings and two-year-olds in Dr. Slack's ponds in 
New Jersey, or at Mr. Dexter's at West Barnstable, 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 75 

or Mr. Furman's on Long Island, can doubt that 
others can raise them in other places and make them 
live. 

The beginner may accept these axioms in raising 
trout : — 

1 . No trout dies without a cause. 

2. The causes of death are discoverable. 

3. They can, in most instances, be removed. 

My own experience has invariably been to confirm 
these principles. I lost in my apprenticeship days as 
many young fry as any one else ; but with every death, 
say over five per cent, there appeared a distinct assign- 
able cause, present or remote, which could be re- 
moved or avoided next time ; and the more I lost 
the more I became satisfied that the causes of 
death among the young fry could be discovered and 
avoided. 

My later experience has added confirmation to this 
opinion. And now, since I have used charcoal troughs 
and tanks altogether, deaths among the young trout 
have been, among some lots, rare occurrences, and in 
general have been no more frequent — over the five 
per cent weak ones — than among the yearlings and 
breeders. 

In one charcoal trough, in particular, containing 
over five thousand, there was, in the season of 1870, 
less than one per cent of deaths from all causes in 
three months. It has been the same this year (187 1). 
In one box of a thousand I have not taken out ten 
dead ones in three months. I attribute this in a great 
degree to the use of charcoal in hatching, but it con- 



1/6 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

firms the theory just advocated, that the causes of 
death can be removed. 

This has been a long digression, I know. I beg 
the reader to excuse it. I was saying that if you 
took good care of the young fish, hatched and pro- 
vided for them as has been suggested, there were 
ninety chances out of a hundred that you would raise 
them. This remaining contingency, however, of tak- 
ing good care of them, is no trifle. It involves constant 
vigilance and a very faithful attention to all the con- 
ditions upon which the life and growth of the young 
trout depend. 

As any further directions as to the care of them 
would be a repetition of what has already been written, 
I will merely advise the beginner to be always on his 
guard against accidents and dangers ; to visit the fish 
the first thing in the morning, and the last thing at 
night ; to carry out Macbeth's resolution, " to make as- 
surance double sure," even if it seems like taking a 
"bond of" certainty. And now, hoping that the reader 
will have the best of luck during this delicate period of 
the trout's career, let us pass on to the consideration 
of the unpleasant but important subject of the diseases 
of young trout. 

Section III. — Diseases of Trout Fry. 

We are now come to the department of trout cul- 
ture which is the least known, namely, the diseases to 
which young trout are subject. This is an almost un- 
trodden field of study,* where little is known, and 

* Tibe art of raising horses and other domestic animals has 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. I// 

Still less recorded. It is important, however, that this 
department should not be overlooked, partly because 
no art which has for its object the cultivation of any 
creature can be considered perfected without a 
knowledge of its diseases ; and, especially, because 
the diseases of young trout are often clandestine in 
their operation and epidemic in their effect, so that, 
when the ravages of disease break out, they are pecu- 
liarly widespread and fatal, and rapid in their work. 

I therefore venture, though with some timidity, to 
give the reader the little knowledge which I have 
gathered on the subject from observation of the trout 
under my care, with the hope that others will follow 
in the same path, and supplement my scanty notes 
with more valuable information ; and I wish to say that 
I claim neither appropriateness in the names of the 
diseases mentioned in this chapter,' nor perfect cor- 
rectness in the diagnosis. I only give the plain re- 
sult of my incidental observation, without pretending 
to great thoroughness or scientific knowledge of the 
subject. 

The diseases and causes of death which have come 
under my notice among young fry are as follows : — 

1. Fungus on the egg. 

2. Partial suffocation of the embryo. 

3. Strangulation of the embryo in hatching. 

4. Seth Green's dropsy, or blue swelling. 

books on their diseases, and we know where to go to find horsC'r 
doctors and dog-doctors and the like ; but no book has been 
written on the diseases of young trout, and I suppose there never 
was in all the world such a thing as a fish-doctor. 

8* L 



1^8 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

5. Deformity at birth. 

6. Fungus on the surface of the body. 

7. Constitutional weakness. 

8. Emaciation. 

9. Starvation. 

10. Ulcers on the head. 

11. Animal parasites. 

12. Fin disease. 

13. Black ophthalmia. 

14. Irritation of the optic nerve. 

15. Inflammation of the gills. 

16. Black gill fever. 

17. Fatty degeneration of the vitals. 

18. Spotted rash. 

19. Strangulation by food. 

20. Cannibalism, nibbling. 

21. Overheating. 

22. Suffocation. 

23. Paralysis. 

I. Fungus on the egg. This is the most insidious, 
the most devastating, and the most obnoxious of all 
the diseases of young trout, and the first in order of 
the causes of death. It blights the embryo in the t.gg. 
Once present in the water, it spreads unseen over all 
the eggs, and is sooner or later fatal. The effect of 
fungus has been already described in the chapter on 
Hatching the Eggs, p. 115. We mention it here again 
among diseases of trout fry, because it sometimes does 
not kill the eggs, but causes them to produce prema- 
turely a weakly young fish, which usually dies before 
summer. 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 79 

For causes, signs, and remedies of fungus, we refer the 
reader to the chapter on Hatching the Eggs, pp. 115,116. 

2. Partial suffocation of the embryo. It sometimes 
happens that the embryo will be partially suffocated 
a short time before the egg hatches, so that, although 
the embryo will be born alive, it will die soon after. 
The cause of this, of course, is not giving the eggs air 
enough, either from overcrowding them or not having 
enough circulation in the water. The remedies are 
obvious. 

3. Straiigulatioji in hatchifig. Sometimes the em- 
bryo dies just in the act of hatching. I have attributed 
it to the strangulation of the embryo by the shell of 
the egg. It may be from other causes. There is no 
remedy that I know of, and the instances of death 
from this cause are not numerous enough with trout 
to make it a very serious matter.* 

4. Seth GreerHs dropsy^ or blue swellijig of the yolk 
sac. This is a very noticeable disorder among the 
alevin trout, and, being an affection of the yolk sac, is 
of course confined to them. 

The sac becomes swollen to three times its usual 
size. The outer membrane shows very thin and trans- 
parent, is seen to be filled with a bluish liquid, and, 
when punctured, discharges a thin, watery fluid. Seth 
Green's book calls it the dropsy ; it affects only a 

* Mr. Parnaby, of Troutdale Fishery, England, says he has 
noticed this cause of death particularly in the char [Salmo umbla)^ 
and he attributes it to the tough shell of the char ^gg and the 
peculiarly round and full form of the yolk sac, which makes it 
more difficult for the char to liberate itself from the egg than 
for other fish. 



l80 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

few fish and is not contagious. I know of no special 
cause and no remedy. Green says the fish can be 
sometimes saved by tapping the sac and letting out 
the dropsical matter; but I doubt it, and think the 
disease is always fatal. 

5. Deformity at birth. Some trout are born with 
curved spines, spiral spines, double heads, and with 
bodies more or less imperfect. The proportion of 
these to the whole is generally small, though the num- 
ber of deformed spines will be made considerable by 
careless hatching. Unless the deformity is slight, the 
fish will not live long after feeding, although a double 
fish, with two distinct vertebral columns and separate 
tails, and united only at the sac, will survive for some 
time. If the deformity is trifling, they sometimes live. 
I have killed several grown-up trout with somewhat 
bowed and crooked backs. Careful hatching is the 
remedy for deformed spines, or rather the preventa- 
tive. 

6. Fungus on the surface of the body. This cause 
of mortality is distinct from fungus on the ^gg^ as it. 
attaches itself to fish hatched from perfect eggs. The 
fish usually get the fungus on them when quite young, 
by rubbing it off the sides of the box or pond in which 
they ar:e confined. It sometimes floats down with the 
water and gets in their gills. It is always fatal, and 
usually very destructive. It cannot be too carefully 
guarded against. There is no remedy for the disease 
after it attacks the fish, unless it is salt water.* It can 
be prevented only by shutting off any possibility of 

* See Appendix I. 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. l8l 

fungus growing in the hatching troughs or coming into 
the water. This can be done by the use of carbonized 
troughs and aqueducts throughout. 

7. Constitutional weakness. This is an evil which 
is the necessary lot, we suppose, of a certain propor- 
tion of all domesticated creatures that are born into 
the world. This proportion, in the case of domesti- 
cated trout, can be reduced very much by careful 
breeding and hatching ; but there is, nevertheless, a 
limit as with other creatures, beyond which the causes 
lie too deep and too far back to be controlled. What 
the limit is with trout is not known. I think Mr. 
Ainsworth's opinion is, that the percentage of loss from 
this cause is very large with artificially taken eggs. 
I think it is much less, and with care in developing 
strong and healthy embryos need not be over five 
per cent. The constitutionally weak ones may be 
distinguished from the rest by being at birth thin, 
puny, undersized, and looking as if they never would 
come to anything. There is no help for them, but the 
Qumber of them can be much reduced by care in the 
development of the embryo. 

8. Emaciation. Many of the young fry are usually 
observed to wear away without any visible cause. 
They do not wholly decline food, but grow thinner 
and thinner every day, till at last they die. 

■ This emaciation, although the effect of disease, is 
classed here among diseases, because the causes are 
not known. If sufficiently studied, the disorder would 
probably be found resolvable into some of the other 
diseases here mentioned. These attenuated fish may 



I 82 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

not always die, but I do not think them worth the 
trouble of raising. The best thing to do with them 
is to turn them out into a natural brook, and let them 
shift for themselves. They may come to something 
there. They never will in the nursery. 

9. Starvation. This, Seth Green thinks, is a prolific 
cause of death among the very young fry, and it does 
not follow that they will escape because their keeper 
takes pains to feed them ; for, if confined in ponds 
of considerable size, they will often wander off where 
they can find no food, and from shyness and ignorance 
will not come up to take it when offered. The con- 
sequence is that they are soon carried against the 
screens, or drop down dead from exhaustion, forty- 
eight hours of fasting being enough to reduce very 
young fry to a state of extreme weakness. 

I have often thought also, that, when very hungry, 
they will eat things which do not agree with them, 
and so hasten their death. 

The remedy for the danger of starvation is to con- 
fine the trout where they will take their rations regu- 
larly and feed them faithfully. Then you will not lose 
any from this cause. 

10. Ulcers on the head. This disease has already 
been mentioned in the chapter on growing young 
trout. It usually attacks the fish, if at all, when they 
are young, and always comes when the water gets 
foul from decaying food, and when the fish have no 
earth. Great numbers died of it before the use of 
earth as a remedy was discovered. As this disease 
progresses, the fish becomes lank in body, its head 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 83 

swells and grows soft, and an ulcer appears on the 
top of the skull, which discharges a thin, watery fluid 
when punctured. It is not contagious, but always 
fatal. The remedy is found in prevention. It is to 
keep the water pure, and give the trout plenty of 
earth. 

II. Animal parasites .^ This is a very alarming and 
destructive cause of death among the young fry, and 
all the more because the parasite attacks the best 
and fattest and healthiest fish. They come suddenly 
and unexpectedly, sometimes as early as the ist of 
May, and first show themselves as a little bunch of 
whitish jelly-like matter on the back or sides of the 
fish, in most cases not far from the dorsal fin. At 
first the fish does not appear to mind it much, and 
feeds and remains in good condition for a day or two. 
But soon after he seeks an eddy where the water is 
still, refuses food, and dies within a week. This dis- 
ease is fatal, and whether contagious or not, it is cer- 
tain that whole boxes are attacked at once, and in the 
instances within my experience every fish was de- 
stroyed in ten days, none escaped ; it is the most 
fatal and insidious disorder that I have encountered 
in raising young fry. The microscope which I used 
for examination revealed nothing but a gelatinous 
protuberance on the body of the fish. I have sup- 
posed it to be the eggs of some water insect floating 
in the water, but provided with the power of attaching 
itself to whatever it fell upon, like the eggs of perch 

* See Appendix I. for account of another class of animal 
parasites, not discovered when this chapter was written. 



184 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

and other fishes. I have therefore called it an animal 
parasite, though future observation may prove this to 
be incorrect. At first sight one would take it for the 
fungus, which is so common among injured fish ; but a 
little examination shows it to be quite different, affect- 
ing the fish differently, and, what is the worst feature 
about it, attacking perfectly healthy, uninjured trout ; 
the largest and most promising being among the first 
of its victims. In my experience, the parasites have 
not, I think, originated always or usually in the en- 
closure where the fish were, but somewhere above in 
the stream, where they are generated, and whence 
they float down to where the fish are which they 
fasten upon. The fish that are affected cannot be 
saved, but the spread of the disease may be checked 
by prompt measures. 

Therefore, as soon as the presence of this disease 
is discovered, take out the affected ones and throw 
them away. Then change all the others to a new 
place where you can depend upon the water, and lose 
no time in doing it. 

12. Fin disease. At all stages of growth during 
the first six months, the fins of the young fish may 
sometimes be observed to be mutilated. Occasionally 
as many as one fourth of them will be found to be so 
affected. Sometimes the fins will be simply a little 
frayed at the edges, at other times the fin will be 
seen to be nearly gone, and will present a fungussy 
edge. The affected ones will usually gravitate towards 
the outlet screens, and will be the weaker and smaller 
ones of the lot, but occasionally a large and vigorous 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 85 

one at the upper end will have a fin or two half gone. 
This disorder is not always fatal, by any means, for 
some will recover ; but if either of the pectoral fins are 
nearly destroyed, or if fungus has set in, the trout 
will probably die. 

One cause of this disease is the biting of other fish. 
Young trout, like cub bears, are irritable in their na- 
ture, and do not like to have others come too near 
them, but will snap and bite their companions when 
they show a disposition to crowd. The result is that 
their fins frequently get mutilated, and present the 
appearance just described. They show this irritable- 
ness especially when they are left unfed for a while 
and get very hungry, the hunger, perhaps, having a 
double agency in making them bite at each other. 
This unnecessary cause of the evil should at least 
be avoided. When you discover any young trout 
with injured fins, take them out and put them by 
themselves, where they have plenty of room, plenty 
of water, and plenty of . food. Some will die, per- 
haps half With the others the fins will grow out 
again, and the trout in a few months be as well as 
ever. 

13. Black ophthalmia. This Is a strange disease. 
You sometimes observe a fish becoming very black 
and inclined to separate from the rest. He is some- 
what emaciated, refuses food, and is less easily fright- 
ened than the others. If you examine his eyes, you 
will see that the tissue of the pupil is more or less 
destroyed and his eyesight much injured, which is the 
cause of his not being frightened at your approach. 



1 86 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

The emaciation continues, the blackness of the skin 
increases ; the fish finally becomes totally blind and 
dies. I know of no cause or remedy, though I 
have noticed that more cases occur where the water 
has become somewhat foul, and once I thought a fish 
affected with this disorder recovered on being removed 
into better water, but I do not feel certain of it. The 
disease attacks young and old alike, and is not conta- 
gious. 

14, Irritation of the optic nerve. Fishes, as is well 
known, have no eyelids to protect their eyes from 
excessive light. It is therefore a very serious thing to 
young fry, that have been used only to the dark, to be 
suddenly exposed to the glare of the sun ; and it some- 
times happens that when they are so exposed, and 
cannot escape from the sunlight, their brains become 
hurt, they assume most unnatural positions and move- 
ments, and after darting about frantically, like crazy 
creatures, for a few moments, they die. I have sup- 
posed that the unaccustomed light produces an irrita- 
tion of the optic nerve, and have so named it. 

15. Infianimation of the gills. This corresponds to 
inflammation of the lungs in animals, and it is the re- 
sult usually of crowding too many trout into too small 
a space, without a sufiicient change of water. Their 
gills or lungs have too much work to do, and this, with 
breathing over the impure water, produces inflamma- 
tion. It is a lingering disorder, more in that particular 
like consumption in higher orders. The affected fish 
may contrive to live for some time, and eat the same, 
but will not grow any; they will become attenuated, and 



REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 8/ 

finally die. I am inclined to think, however, that the 
disease is not always fatal, but that a change to pure 
water and plenty of it will often effect a cure. The ap- 
plication of earth in this disease seems injurious, rather 
than beneficial, probably owing to the irritating action 
of the sandy particles on the inflamed tissues. You 
can detect the disease before death by looking directly 
down on the fish from above. In a perfectly healthy 
fish the gill covers completely cover the gills, and shut 
down closely over them. In a sick fish the gill covers 
do not wholly conceal the gills, which are visible 
through the whole respiration of the fish, and appear 
swollen and inflamed. After death the fish looks so 
much like a perfectly healthy fish, that an inexperi- 
enced person would say there was not a mark of dis- 
ease upon it. Deaths from this cause are very pro- 
voking to beginners, for the fish seems to them to die 
without any cause whatever. 

1 6. Black gill fever. There is another disease of 
the gills, which is more rapid in its action, and to 
which I have given the above name because it seems 
to resemble a fever, and because the gills of the fish 
turn black. I have not had many cases of it myself, 
but I believe it is usually fatal ; others who have ob- 
served it think that it is contagious. I know of no 
remedy. 

17. Fatty degeneration of the vitals. Sometimes when 
you examine a young trout that has died without a 
visible cause, you will find an abnormal accumulation 
of fat about the vitals, and nothing in the stomach. 
This is probably the cause of its death. There is, as 



1 88 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

is well known, a corresponding disease among higher 
orders, called fatty degeneration of the heart. Dr. 
Slack of the Troutdale Ponds speaks of this disease 
among trout, and says that a constant diet of curd will 
produce it. 

1 8. Spotted rash. I once gave an abundance of 
water-cresses {Nasturtium officinale) to a lot of young 
fry that had been kept wholly without vegetable food. 
In forty-eight hours their bodies were covered with 
brown spots, and within the next forty-eight hours 
most of the fish died. I cannot say for a certainty 
whether it was a rash coming from within, or a parasite 
coming from without. I have called it spotted rash 
for want of a better name, and have noted it for future 
obser\Trs. Whatever it is, it is certainly very fatal. 

19. Strangulation by food. Trout of all ages will 
sometimes take too large pieces of food, which they 
cannot disgorge, and which they cannot swallow, and 
therefore get choked to death. You will see them 
in the pond with their eyes protruding, and head 
ver}^ much swollen laterally, and the offending morsel 
sometimes projecting from the mouth. The situation 
is usually fatal, but not always ; they will sometimes 
recover, after having had a frightfully swollen head and 
eyes ; sometimes you can save them by pulling the 
piece of food out of their throats. 

20. Can7iibalisjn, nibbling. This is a frequent cause 
of death among the young fry. Trout are cannibals ; 
they will always eat each other, if they can, when they 
are hungry ; and this can be taken as a rule, that a trout 
of any size, if hungry enough, will eat a trout of half its 



REARING OF THE YOUNG FRY. 1 89 

length. A trout a foot long will eat a trout of six 
inches, or a trout two inches long will eat a trout an 
inch long. Cannibalism is something, too, which 
grows on trout; and after having once tasted flesh of 
their own kind, they, like human cannibals, prefer it, 
and, refusing their ordinary food, they will lie in am- 
buscade in holes and corners, where, feeding on their 
weaker fellows, they thrive and grow better than the 
rest. This makes the evil doubly mischievous, be- 
cause from their new habit of hiding they are less 
likely to be discovered, and their increased rate of 
growth is daily putting a greater difference in size be- 
tween them and their companions, and making them 
more formidable. Careful sorting is the remedy, to- 
gether with regular feeding. If these rules are ob- 
served, there will not be much trouble or loss from the 
trout eating one another. But there is another form 
of cannibalism, which, though less repugnant, is more 
injurious, namely, nibbling. The young fry when they 
first feed are very voracious, and will nibble at the 
tails and fins of those in front of them, and, if allowed 
to get very hungry, will often do a great deal of injury 
in this way, especially if much crowded. The younger 
they are, the more they are given to the habit, but they 
finally outgrow it. The remedy is to give them regu- 
lar feed and plenty of room. 

21. Overheating. This simply means being kept in 
water that is not cold enough. As summer advances 
and the weather grows warmer and warmer, the wa- 
ter in your brook sometimes grows too warm for the 
trout to live in. If that is your coldest brook the 



IQO DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

consequence is inevitable. The trout must die. This 
cause of death is trying, because you can see the 
trouble and know what is coming, but cannot help it. 
If you have colder water, remove the fish to it without 
delay, and take the first hours of the morning in which 
to do it, when the water is coolest; use ice in convey- 
ing them. If the heat is only exceptional, you can do 
some good by the use of ice placed in the inlet. I 
have saved some in that way ; indeed, as long as the 
ice lasts you are safe, but it wastes very rapidly in run- 
ning water, and therefore is often unavailable. The 
dangerous point of temperature lies somewhere be- 
tween 70° and 85° Fahrenheit. I have known water 
to be fatal at 72° or 73°, and I have known trout to 
live in good vigorous water at 78°, but danger is near 
when the mercury begins to be above 70°. 

22. Suffocation. This is simply the result of want 
of air, from the water having been breathed over too 
much. The cause ^nd remedy are obvious. I will 
only say that the colder the water the slower trout 
breathe. 

In case of suffocation, the fish should not be given 
up because it appears to be dead, for suffocated trout 
are often restored, even after life seems to be entirely 
extinct. The way to do this is to aerate the water in 
which they are contained as vigorously as possible. 
The effect is often very startling, as well as gratifying, 
in bringing to life fish that appeared dead. 

In concluding this chapter on the diseases of young 
fry, I would recommend to the trout-breeder to ex- 
amine his trout carefully every day, and to be always 



REARING OF THE YOUNG FRY. IQI 

on the watch for the appearance of disease, and, when 
he detects its presence, to act promptly on the maxim 
in the beginning of Seth Green's work on fish culture, 
" Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to- 
day." The progress of disease among young trout 
is often so rapid, and so epidemic in its character, 
that you cannot be too vigilant in discovering it, or 
too prompt in suppressing it. I would add, also, 
that you must not suppose because none of your fry 
are dying that no disease is in progress, or that dis- 
ease has just set in when the fish t)egin to die. On 
the contrary, in some instances the disease or offend- 
ing cause may have been at work for weeks before 
the first fish actually dies from it. Therefore be vigi- 
lant and prompt in guarding against the first approach 
of evil. 

23. Paralysis. There is still another disease to 
which young fry are subject, and I should call it par- 
alysis if I thought that fish were subject to this dis- 
order. It attacked one lot, and only one, of my 
alevin trout. They had been hatched about a month, 
and the yolk sac was nearly half gone. There were, 
perhaps, about two thousand in the compartment. 
Sixty or seventy were attacked. The first time I 
discovered that anything was wrong was one morning 
when the water was being agitated with a feather. 
The well ones immediately headed with all their might 
against the current as usual, while a few, only fifteen 
or sixteen at first, were observed to lie perfectly mo- 
tionless, and to move unresistingly with the current, 
and finally to collect in a heap in the centre of an 



192 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

eddy. On examination they appeared to be perfectly 
lifeless ; but they did not — and this is the singular 
part of it — they did not change color, as dead fry of 
this age invariably do. The next day, and for two or 
three days, they continued to look like live fish as 
they lay still in the water, and to appear like dead 
fish when more closely examined. After three or 
four days one or more white spots were seen near the 
heart, and these finally extended all over the body : 
but the entire white change did not come on for a 
number of days, and always began internally and 
worked outwards. Sixty or seventy were affected in 
this way. All 'died ; but the others in the com- 
partment did not seem to suffer at all, and remained 
alive and well. 

Section IV. — Filling Orders for Young Fry. 

Filling orders for young fry in the spring is part 
of the trout-breeder's business, and promises to con- 
tinue to be, on the principle that people will buy their 
young fish to save hatching them, as people buy young 
cabbage-plants and tomatoes to save starting them. 

A few words about sending off the young fish may 
be of service to the beginner. 

The first thing to do in preparing to fill an order 
for young fry is to arrange temporary boxes to put 
them into after they are counted. These boxes should 
have a stream of water running through them, should 
be provided with an ample screen for an outlet, and 
should be light and portable, so that they can be 
lifted, and the fish and water poured from them when 



REARING OF THE YOUNG FRY. I93 

wanted.* The boxes should be perfectly clean, so 
that there will be nothing but the fish and the water 
to pour out. The next thing is to count them. To 
do this, net out a quantity from the hatching-troughs 
into a pan of water. Place this pan side by side with 
a large can or pail of water. Then take a dipper and 
dip up a few fish from the pan and pass them over to 
the pail, counting each dipperful as it is passed over. 
You had, perhaps, better begin with only four or five 
in the dipper at once, but with practice you will be 
able to count seven or eight or more at a time as you 
pass them over. It takes from half an hour to an 
hour, according to your dexterity, to count a thousand. 
It is a good plan to score every hundred, so that, if 
you lose your count, you will not have to go back far 
to recover it. It is very easy to forget your count, and 
very provoking to be obliged to count over again two 
or three thousand because of forgetting the exact num- 
ber ; but if you score every hundred there is no danger 
of being driven to this. The temporary box for the 
night should be in place when you begin to count 
them, so that the counted fish will not be obliged to 
stay long in the pail or can. If there is a large num- 
ber to send off, they should be counted the day before, 
and placed in the boxes, fed well, and covered over 
for the night. They will then be in good condition to 
start the next day, which is a very important point. 

* In transferring young fry from one receptacle to another, it 
is easier and safer to pour them over, water and all, than to net 
them out. If the fry are very thick, it is sometimes best to 
transfer part of them with the net, and pour over the rest. 

9 M 



194 



DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



In the morning feed them again, and when it is time to 
start, transfer them to the tank or can which is to carry 
them. For small quantities, say i,ooo or 2,000, I use 
a twelve-gallon tin can. For larger quantities, say 
5,000 or more, I take a seventy-gallon tank, a drawing 
of which may be seen in the Massachusetts Report of 
the Fishery Commissioners for 1868, Plate III. Fig. 6. 
The tank has a pump attached ; but this is not worked 
when small fish are carried. I use also a hundred-, 
gallon tank for moving still larger quantities. 

The tank for 
carrying fish, 
when filled 
with water, is 
very heav}?^, 
and should 
have four iron 
handles on the 
sides to facili- 
tate moving. 
It must not be 
made too large 
round, or it 
will not go in- 
to the door of 
the express - 
car, which 
would be 
found to be a 

Tin Can for the Transportation of Young Fry. VCrv SCrioUS 

difficulty. In travelling long distances, I take, be- 




REARING OF THE YOUNG FRY. 



195 



sides the tank,* a water-pail, a bag of ice, tin dipper 
or bellows, and a sponge. The ice will be all needed 
before night, if the weath- 
er is warm. The pail is 
a convenience in various 
ways, the dipper or bel- 
lows t is for aerating the 
water, and the sponge is 
for the floor of the car, 
if the water slops over. 
Be careful to have plenty 
of help when you load 
into the car, and also at 
every change of cars, for, 
different from other mer- 
chandise, an upset is of- 
ten a total loss. J 

Keep the temperature ^^^ ^^'■^^"^'' °° "^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^' p^^'^^^- 
of the water very low all day with ice, — using large 
pieces when standing still, and small pieces when in 
motion, as the large pieces are then apt to bruise and 
kill the fish. Do not change the water en route, but 
give it a thorough aeration once in half an hour. 
The aerating will be sure to keep them alive, while 

* The Troutdale Transit Tank is recommended as an excel- 
lent thing to carry live fish in. See Dr. Slack's Catalogue of 
fish culturists' apparatus. A common flour-barrel, well soaked, 
with floats on the top of the water to prevent slopping, is a very 
good impromptu afiair for carrying live fish. 

t A common hand fire-bellows is as good an extempore aerat- 
ing machine as can be found. 

t See Appendix II., on Journeys with Live Fish. 




Tg6 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

there is always a risk of killing them by using water 
with which you are not acquainted. 

It is best, I think, to accompany the fish all the 
way, and see them safely in the hands of those to 
whom they are consigned, though, where there is no 
change of cars to the end of the route, I sometimes 
leave them the last fifty miles, with a small fee, in the 
hands of the express messenger. 

Alevins require less air than older fish, and no food, 
consequently more can be taken in less water than 
when older, and the risk of loss is correspondingly 
less, making the alevin stage the best time for trans- 
portation. But, as you cannot sell all your fish at the 
alevin stage, you will probably have occasion to trans- 
port the young fry at various ages. This is always 
practicable ; only it should be remembered that the 
older they are the more water they require. 

A thousand alevins can be carried in a gallon of 
water, kept very cold. At the age of three months I 
allow a gallon of water for each two hundred feeding fry. 

In brief, then, when you transport young fry, count 
them the day before, start them in good condition, go 
with them, keep the water very cold with ice, do not 
change it, aerate it regularly, and do not upset the 
tank, and you will find the fish will do almost as well 
on a journey of twelve or twenty-four hours as if they 
were at home in the stream. I have carried ten thou- 
sand young fry, four months old, all (5ay in hot weather, 
from 5 A. M. to 6 p. m., in fifty gallons of water, without 
change, and with a loss of only seven fish out of the ten 
thousand. See Appendix, on Journeys with Live Fish. 



CHAPTER V. 

GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 

Section I. — Trout in General. 

Scientific Description of the Salmo Fontinalis. By 
David Humphreys Storer* 

SALMO FONTINALIS. Common Trout. Mitch- 
ill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. of N. Y., I. p. 435. 
Salmo nigrescens. Black Trout. Raf., Ichth. Ohien., 

P- 43- 
Red-spotted Trout. Doughty, Cabinet of Nat. Hist., 

L p. 145, PI. 13. 
Salmo fontinalis. Rich, Fauna Boreal. Americ, III. 

p. 176, PL 83, fig. I., PI. 87, fig. 2, head. 
Salmo fontinalis. Common Brook Trout. Storer's 

Report, p. 106. 
Salmo fontinalis. Speckled Trout. Kirtland's Report, 

pp. 169-194. 
Salmo fontinalis. Brook Trout. Thompson, Hist, of 

Vermont, p. 141. 
Salmo fontinalis. Brook Trout. Deka/s Report, p. 

235? Pi- 37, fig- 120. 
Baione fontinalis. Spotted Troutlet. Dekay's Report, 
p. 244, PL 20, fig. 58. 

^ A History of the Fishes of Massachusetts, by David Hum- 
phreys Storer, 1867, pp. 322, 323, 326. 



198 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Salmo fontinalis. Brook Trout. Ayres, Bost. Journ. 

Nat. Hist., IV. p. 273. 
Salmo fontinalis. Common Brook Trout. Kirtland, 

Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist, IV. p. 305. 
Salmo fontinalis. Common Brook Trout. Storer, 

Mem. Amer. Acad., new series, II. p. 444. 
Salmo fontinalis. Common Brook Trout. Synopsis, 

p. 192 ; Cuv. & Val., Nat. Hist, de Pois., XXI. p. 

266. 

Color. — The upper part of the body is of a pale 
brown, mottled with darker undulating, reticulated 
markings ; the sides lighter, with a great number of 
circular yellow spots, varying in their size from a small 
point to a line or more in diameter, and many of them 
having in the centre a bright red spot ; sometimes, the 
yellow color surrounding them having partially disap- 
peared, they seem distinct from the circular spots, or 
are surrounded by a dull bluish halo ; these red spots 
differ exceedingly in number in different specimens, 
in some three or four only are observable, and those are 
situated below the lateral line ; in others, twenty or 
more are seen, scattered above and below the lateral 
line indiscriminately, presenting a beautiful appear- 
ance. The body beneath is white, yellowish-wtoe, 
slightly or dark fuliginous. Head above darker than 
the back of the fish. Gill-covers golden, and fuligi- 
nous. The dorsal fin is yellow \vith irregular trans- 
verse black bands. The first ray of the pectorals and 
ventrals is white, the second dark-colored, the remain- 
der of the fin is red. The first ray of the anal fin is 
white, the remainder generally red. The caudal fin is 
of a dirty reddish -brown, mottled with black spots. 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. I99 

Description. — Body elongated, compressed. The 
length of the head is about equal to one fifth the 
length of the fish ; the top of the head is flattened ; 
the snout is obtuse. The eyes are large and circular. 
The distance between the eyes is equal to one fifth the 
length of the head. The jaws are equal in length ; 
the g^pe of the mouth is large ; the teeth are sharp 
and recurved ; the teeth on the tongue are larger than 
those of the jaws ; there are teeth also on the palatines 
and romer. The scales are very small ; those on the 
lateral line, which pursues a straight course, are larger 
than those on the rest of the body. 

The quadrangular dorsal fin is situated upon the 
anterior half of the body ; the adipose fin is quite 
small, and near the tail. 

The pectorals arise in front of the posterior angle 
of the operculum ; their length is equal to one quarter 
of their height. 

The fan-shaped ventrals commence opposite the 
middle of the dorsal fin ; when unexpanded, their ex- 
tremities together form a sharp point. 

The anal fin arises in front of the adipose fin, and 
is higher than it is long. 

The caudal fin is deeply emarginated. 

The fin-rays are as follows : D. 11, P. 13, V. 8, A. 
II, C. 19. 

Length, eight to twenty inches. 

Labrador : H. S. Storer. Maine, Massachusetts : 
Storer. Connecticut : Linsley, Ayres. Vermont : 
Thompson. New York : Mitchill, Dekay. Pennsyl- 
vania : Dekay. Ohio : Kirtland. Lake Huron : Rich- 
ardson. 



200 domesticated trout. 

* General Remarks about Trout. 

The trout has always stood at the head of the fresh- 
water game fishes in the popular estimation. The 
fickle public may change its favorite some time for a 
more admired successor, but up to this time the trout 
has distanced all rivals. This honorable place he has 
gained and held, not by accident, but by merit He 
deserves to rank by himself yfrj"/, for where has the 
trout his equal ? There may be fish of nearly as fine 
flesh as the trout, but they have a repulsive coat, like 
the pout ; or a coarse appearance, like the bass ; or a 
disagreeable one, like the mascalonge ; or are full of 
bones, like the shad ; or have no game in them, like 
the mullet ; or fail somewhere to match the excellent 
points of the trout. There is not one of them that 
for perfect fault] essness can compare with the trout. 
This is his special peculiarity. He is faultless. He 
surpasses all other fish in grace of form, in beauty 
of coloring, in gentleness of expression, in fascina- 
tion of manner, in gameness of spirit, in sweetness 
and firmness of flesh, and in general personal attrac- 
tiveness, and to excellence in these points he also 
combines faultlessness in all oUiers. Hence it is 
that he is the favorite among fishes, and deserves to 
be so. 

Trout are peculiarly suited to domestication, being 
very hardy, easily tamed, conveniently confined, satis- 
fied with plain food, well adapted to artificial breed- 
ing, prolific enough to increase rapidly, and having a 
sufficiently high value as live game, or as a table lux- 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 201 

ury, to make it worth while to raise them. I will not 
attempt any exhaustive description of these beautiful 
fish here, as they are so well known, and have been so 
thoroughly described in books on angling and on fish 
in general, but will confine myself to the few general 
remarks which follow. 

The vision of the trout is incredibly sensitive to 
motion and to colors, but not to distinctions of form. 

As to their sensitiveness to motion, it may be safely 
said that a company of soldiers standing motionless 
on the bank of a trout brook would not frighten the 
trout in it so much as the moving shadow of one of 
them across the water. 

Their sensitiveness to colors is seen every week at 
the ponds where trout are domesticated, especially 
when their keeper changes a dark coat for a light one, 
or leaves it off altogether. The appearance of the un- 
accustomed light coat or white shirt will often frighten 
well-tamed trout into a panic. 

Trout do not appear to see their food at any great 
distance in clear water, — I should say not over a rod, 
and in roily water but a very short distance, some- 
times not a foot. Trout can see somewhat in the 
night, but I think not in as dark nights as some writ- 
ers have stated. If the sky be clear, they will de- 
tect an object on the surface of the water, projected 
against the sky, better than in the water, projected 
against the banks. A moving light above the water 
in the night will frighten trout ; a stationary light in 
the water will attract them, and apparently stupefy 
them, for they are easily captured while staring at it. 



202 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

The eye of the trout has very convex lenses, and is 
not provided with lids or any other shield whatever 
from the light. This makes bright sunlight sometimes 
fatal to young trmit which have passed their embryo 
period in the dark. The eyes are situated above the 
line of the widest part of the head, and are a little 
protuberant, thus enabling them to see above, before, 
behind, and around, but not below them. Hence 
they cannot feed off the bottom, except at random. 
They will dart at a piece of food on the bottom, hit or 
miss, if they have seen it fall ; but you can see that 
they feel for it with their mouths, rather than catch it 
with their eye, and their movements are also then very 
bungling compared with their swift, certain aim at any- 
thing above them in the water. They will sometimes 
poke the food off the bottom with their noses high 
enough to see it, and then they will take it as well as 
ever. 

The peculiar position of the eyes of the trout has 
been sometimes overlooked in the controversy of fish- 
ing down stream versus fishing up stream. But it is, 
nevertheless, not true, as advanced in the argument 
against fishing up stream, that the angler must neces- 
sarily throw his line over the fish's head to attract his 
notice to the bait, and so be liable to frighten him ; 
for the trout can see the bait if above and consider- 
ably behind him, and will whirl and take it so placed, 
if disposed. 

Opinions are divided about the sense of hearing in 
trout. I think that there never was a controversy in 
the world in which assertions on the subject were 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 203 

more positively made on the one side, or more flatly 
denied on the other. Scott says, very decidedly, in 
his Fishing in American Waters,* " Fishes hear ; of 
this I feel quite sure," and quotes instances of fish 
coming to be fed at the sound of a bell. Seth Green 
says, in his Trout Culture,! that trout cannot hear, 
and that " they will not stir a fraction of an inch at 
the sound of a gun fired one foot above their heads." 

I will not say that trout cannot hear ; but this I will 
say with the greatest positiveness, for I have tested it 
repeatedly, that they are not frightened at noises, how- 
ever loud, nor do they pay the slightest attention to 
them. You may place your mouth directly over the 
trout in a pond, and if they do not see you, you may 
scream with all your might, or ring a bell as loud as 
you please, and the trout will not move a fin to show 
that they are either frightened or attracted, or that 
they have in any way noticed it. You may even fire 
a revolver, or, as Green says, a gun, very near them, 
and if they do not see the flash or feel the concussion 
they will not notice it any more than if they were 
stone-deaf. 

On the other hand, if you are in the habit of calling 
the trout with a bell to be fed, and have found that 
they come at the ringing of it, go to the pond some 
day at feeding time with the tongue taken out of the 
bell, and shake it as usual. The trout will come 
to be fed exactly the same, though not a sound is 
made. 

* Fishing in American Waters, p. 38. 
t Trout Culture, p. 58. 



204 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

The nerves of smell in trout are large, and the sense 

of smell is probably well developed. Hence the use 

of fragrant oils and strongly scented bait in fishing for 

trout. 

Habitat. 

Brook trout abound chiefly in cold, swift-running 
gravelly brooks ; but they thrive in all pure cold wa- 
ters which contain sufficient air. Hence bj'ook trout 
are found in many ponds and lakes, which apparent 
contradiction of terms has frequently led to confusion 
among those unfamiliar with fishing. I may be, there- 
fore, excused for saying, by way of explanation, that 
the name " brook trout " is not confined to trout caught 
in brooks, but applies to all of the varieties of Salmo 
fontinalis^ whether found in brooks, ponds, lakes, or 
rivers. Their range is very extensive, covering a wide 
belt from one end of our continent to the other. In 
phrenological language, their locality is very large, 
which gives them a strong attachment to places. In 
brooks, certain individuals will take up particular 
holes or rapids for their abode, and occupy them for 
months, and sometimes, I am inclined to think, for 
years. 

In lakes and ponds, the shoals of trout have, like 
perch and other fish, particular resting-places, where 
they stay regularly. This is one reason why a person 
acquainted with their haunts will go out and catch a 
string of trout, while others, with better tackle and 
equal skill, will fish a whole day for them in vain. 

The largest trout in brooks are found in the deep 
wide pools in the warmer waters. The smallest ones are 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 205 

found in the cold, narrow mountain rivulets near their 
source. The largest brook trout of all are found in 
large lakes, where range, space, feed, warmth of water, 
and perhaps inherited tendencies, all combine to pro- 
duce a large race. 

Trout, like other fishes, have small brains compared 
with the higher animals, and are very slightly sensi- 
tive to pain. 

They have a rapid digestion, which, though not 
equal to that of a pickerel,* and some warm-water 
fishes, makes them susceptible to very quick growth 
indeed under favorable circumstances. Trout have 
this peculiarity also, that they vary from one another 
in their personal appearance to an endless degree. 
No two trout are alike. Every trout has its individual 
markings, as much as human beings, which distin- 
guish it from all other trout. A mullet caught in a 
lake looks like all the other mullets of the lake, so 
with the white-fish and others ; but each trout has its 
individual marks which distinguish it from all others. 
The trout also of different brooks and lakes all differ 
from one another, so that the streams in which they 
are caught can frequently be told by the looks of the 
fish. Their different localities in the same stream also 
affect their appearance. Over a light gravelly bot- 
tom the trout grow light-complexioned, and they vary 
through all shades of complexion, from this to the 
dark slimy trout, almost as black as a bull-head, which 

* Most fish have a rapid digestion. Bertram compares the 
digestion of some to the action of fire. Harvest of the Sea, 
p. 4. 



206 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

is caught in shady places over black, muddy bottoms. 
And what is still more remarkable, trout have the 
chameleon gift of almost instantly changing their tint 
within certain limits.* • 

They do not, strictly speaking, change their color, 
because a black trout will remain a black trout and a 
silvery trout will remain a silvery trout wherever you 
expose them ; but a complete change comes over 
their whole complexion, so to speak, as if the light to 
which they are subjected were diffused through them, 
so that, in passing from a dark, muddy bed over light 
gravel, they will in less than a minute take the general 
hue of the gravel, and vice vei^sa in passing from 
gravel to mud.t 

The natural food of trout is very various. They 
are carnivorous from choice, though omnivorous in 
emergency. Their food, when wild, consists chiefly 
of water insects, smaller fish, larvso^ fish eggs, crusta- 
,cea, and the flies and insects which fall from the air 
into the water, — all of them together forming an 
astonishingly extensive variety. They also eat each 
other, and there are some individuals which adopt 
cannibal habits altogether, and remain hidden, like 
spiders, in dark holes and corners, and only emerge 
to. devour their like. 

The quality of their food affects the growth and ap- 
pearance of trout, and it is even thought that the dif- 

* The black bass and some other fish have the same power 
to some extent. 

t This change takes place, not in the scales, but in the skin 
underlying the scales. 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 20/ 

ference in the color of their meat is sometimes caused 
by certain kinds of feed ; the fresh-water gammon or 
polex being supposed especially favorable to the pro- 
duction of red-meated trout. 

It is certainly true that their growtlj depends very 
much upon the nature of their food. Francis, in his 
Fish Culture, mentions the following experiment, of 
which he says he once heard.* 

" Equal numbers of trout were confined for a certain 
time by gratings to their several portions of the same 
stream. The fish in one of the divisions were fed en- 
tirely on flies, in another upon minnows, and in the 
third upon worms. At the end of a certain period, 
those which had been fed on flies were the heaviest 
and in the best condition, those fed on minnows oc- 
cupied the second place, while those fed on worms 
were in much the worst order of the three." t 

The age to which trout live is not known. Seth 
Green says that twelve years is probably about the 
average age, and that they are in their prime between 
the age of three years and ten years. I am inclined 
to think that they live to a greater age than this. 
Other kinds of fish in parks in the Old World are 
known to have attained enormous ages,$ and to have 

* Francis on Fish Cukure, p. 113. 

t The result of these experiments should be received cau- 
tiously, as it is doubtful whether all the other modifying condi- 
tions were so exactly alike that the results were wholly due to the 
difference of food. For illustration, a considerable difference in 
temperattire, or in the quantity of food, would affect the condition 
of the fish more than the difference in the nature of the food. 

\ Pike and carp in artificial ponds have been repeatedly found 



208 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

been equalled only in their longevity by the human 
race before the flood. Why should the trout be so 
short-lived ? 

Mr. Lancaster, of Oxford, in a memoir published 
last year, says that fish have great tenacity of life, 
and mentions a carp that reached the age of 150 
years, and a pike, 19 feet long, that lived in a fish- 
pond in Germany 267 years.* He says whales are 
believed to live one or two centuries. 

The size to which brook trout may grow is very un- 
certain, and when we come to the question of the size 
of those that have been actually caught we are on 
mythical ground. The trouble is, as Green mentions, 
that many of the " fish stories " which are told are so 
incredible f that they throw discredit on even well-au- 
thenticated cases, t I am fortunate enough, however, 
through the kindness of George Shepard Page, Presi- 
dent of the Oquossoc Angling Association, and B. F. 
Bowles, Esq., a member of the same Association, to 
cite three instances of unquestionable authenticity, of 

with gold rings in their fins, and other kinds of labels, on which 
were found dates that proved conclusively that one hundred years 
had elapsed since the inscription was made. — Joe Smith, Nat. 
His. Mass. Fishes, p. 57- 

* The greatest wonder about such a fish, if he were in this 
country, would be that he had escaped the poachers so long. 

t A famous fish-story teller once said that he cut a hole 
through the ice at Lake Erie, not more than two inches across, 
with his pocket-knife, and presently pulled out a mascalonge 
that weighed a hundred pounds. On being asked how he drew 
so large a fish through so small a hole, he replied that he had 
not thought of that. 

X Trout Culture, p. 45. 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 209 

trout {^Sahiio fontinalis) actually caught, which weighed 
between 9 and 10 pounds. They are as follows. In 
September, 1867, Mr. Geo. S. Page caught at the outlet 
of Rangeley Lake, Franklin Co., Maine, two male 
trout, one weighing 10 pounds, the other 9I pounds. 
In June, 187 1, Theo. L. Page, Esq., caught a trout in 
Mooseluc Maguntic Lake, in the same county, weigh- 
ing 9 1 pounds. These are the largest brook trout in 
regard to which I have succeeded in obtaining well- 
attested statistics, after making inquiries in various di- 
rections ; and I think it is safe to venture the assertion 
that these trout, if not the largest individuals ever 
caught in this country, are representatives of the 
largest type of the Sahno fontinalis in the United 
States."^ The weight of trout is very deceptive. There 
is no safe test but the scales. The length is no guide, 
for his depth and breadth will often in a short trout 
more than compensate in weight for what is lacking in 
length, and then again a lean trout in poor condition 
sometimes actually does not weigh more than half 

* The following letter gives a fuller account of the large trout 
caught by Mr. Page : — 

10 Warren Street, New York, August 14, 1871. 

Livingston Stone, Esq. 

Dear Sir : In reply to yours of the 5th instant, making in- 
quiries with regard to brook trout, I have much pleasure in men- 
tioning three, caught in September, 1867, by the subscriber at 
the outlet of Rangeley Lake, Franklin County, Maine, — this 
lake being the head- waters of the Androscoggin River : — 

One 10 lbs. male, 

One 9^^ lbs, do., 

One 84 lbs. female. 
The first and last were transported alive in a box of water, 

N 



210 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

what he would when fat and in his best condition. 
This is a great difference, it is true, but it is a fact. It 
is said by medical authorities that a man cannot lose 
over three eighths of his weight and live. It is not so 
with a trout; he can lose full fifty per cent and live. 

Section II. — The Commissary Department. 

The question of food for trout is a very important 
one, and I think, as a general thing, a very simple one 
too, though some printed remarks on the subject have 
made it appear complicated. 

The one correct thing to feed trout on, as a rule, is 
the heart, liver, and lungs of animals killed for market. 
These combine the three desired points of trout food. 
They are cheap, nutritious, and accessible. 

They are Cheap, 

averaging in the country about thr e cents a pound. 
It is true that liver in thickly settled places costs ten 
cents per pound, and if you should feed the trout en- 
tirely on liver in those places it would be very expen- 

aerated by an air-pump, to my pond in Stanley, Morris County, 
N. J., but afterwards died in consequence of too high a tempera- 
ture in the water. The first weighed ten (lo) lbs. by steelyard 
within a half-hour after death. It is now in a glass case in my 
office in New York. The g^ lbs. trout was sent to General Grant. 
Two of the trout from these waters I have sent to Professor 
Agassiz, in 1863 and in 1867, and in a personal interview he pro- 
nounced them real Brook Trout [Salmo fonti7ialis). 
Faithfully yours, 

GEO. SHEPARD page, 

Pres't Oquossoc Ang. Ass. 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 211 

sive feeding. But the lungs are quite as good food 
for trout as liver, and better in some respects. The 
lungs can be bought in any community for two cents 
a pound. Sheep's and lambs' plucks can also be 
bought for the same. As a general thing, in the more 
thickly settled places the lungs and sheep's plucks are 
cheaper than in the country, because of the greater 
number of animals killed in such localities. While 
food can be bought at these figures, trout can be profit- 
ably raised at half the present market-prices. T/ii's 
kind of food is accessible. Wherever there is a com- 
munity of any size, cattle and sheep are killed for its 
support, and wherever these are killed the plucks may 
be procured. This class of food can always be ob- 
tained also at the great cattle markets, like Brighton 
and Cambridge in Massachusetts, where it can be 
bought so low, that, with a hundred miles' express- 
charges added, it will not cost over the average price 
in the country of three cents a pound. 

They are Nutritious. 

The plucks of animals, being solid fresh meat, are 
the most nutritious food in the world for trout, and 
cannot be objectionable in this respect. This food, I 
should say, then, should form the chief reliance of the 
trout-grower. 

To prepare it for the fish, run it raw through a 
common sausage-grinder, and it is then ready to feed 
to them. 

Various other things can be used for food, and the 
best among these are : — 



212 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

1. Other kinds of meat. 

2. Live minnows. 

3. Fish-flesh ground up. 

4. Sour-milk curd. 

5. Worms and insects. 

1. Other kinds of meat. Trout, being carnivorous, 
will always thrive on meat. Therefore, any kind of 
meat, whether raw or boiled, which is cheap enough 
and convenient enough, makes suitable food for them. 
Horse-flesh,* young calves, and scant sheep would an- 
swer for trout-food, and are also cheap. 

2. Live minnoivs. These unquestionably form a 
very desirable article of food for trout, and should be 
given them when they can be afforded. They are natu- 
ral food, and at the same time furnish a wholesome 
change from the usual meat diet. In some favorable 
places they can be obtained in vast quantities, and are 
the cheapest food that can be had. These are excep- 
tional localities, it is true ; but in almost all brooks they 
can be collected in considerable quantities by shutting 
off the stream above, and netting them out of the little 
pools in which they are trapped by the receding water. 

The use of live minnows in large ponds has been 
objected to on the ground that minnows, living on 
the same insects and other food as the trout, rob the 
trout of what they would otherwise get themselves. 
This objection has some weight, it is true, in itself; 
but it is more than offset by the value of the min- 
nows to the trout. The minnows more than com- 
pensate in themselves to the trout for what they 

* Paris lived on horse-flesh ; why should not trout } 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 213 

eat. I would give the trout all the minnows I could 
get. 

There is another objection which deserves more 
consideration, and this is that in amateur trout ponds, 
where large and small trout are kept together without 
sorting, the habit of feedjng on minnows may encour- 
age the bad habit, in the trout, of feeding on each 
other. In this case I w^ould take a day or two for the 
work, and sort the fish thoroughly, and then let them 
have the minnows ; but if this cannot be done, per- 
haps the objection against the minnows holds good. 

3. Fish-flesh g7-ou7id up. This is undoubtedly good 
food for trout, and in some districts fish are so plenty 
that it is the cheapest and most accessible food. For 
instance, on the Mirimichi River, where smelts are used 
to manure the land, or on the Missisquoi, where a large 
sturgeon can be bought for a dollar, and perch for 
nothing, these or other fish, killed and run through 
a mill such as is used for grinding mackerel bait, would 
answer quite as well as meat. Trout like meat best, 
but thrive well on fish food. 

4. Soiir-milk curd. This makes very good food for 
trout, though they do not like it as well as meat. 
It is easily prepared by pouring boiling water on 
bonny-clabber and straining out the whey. What re- 
mains in the strainer is the curd. When milk is 
plenty, this food is very accessible, and also not ex- 
pensive, and makes a very good occasional substitute 
for meat ; but an exclusive diet of curd is thought 
to be unhealthful. 

5. Worms and itisecis. These, of course, with all 



214 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Other natural food, are good for the trout. Give them 
all you can get, which, after all, will not be much, com- 
pared with the rest of their food, if you have many 
trout. You can, however, breed maggots for them in 
considerable numbers by hanging the meat over the 
ponds and letting the flies work in it. This is called 
a maggot factory, and, though a good food-producer, 
especially for yearlings, is to my mind very objection- 
able about a domestic trout pond. If you have a pond 
at a distance which you seldom visit, a maggot factory 
will do very well ; but where you go every day, it is a 
nuisance. If you do use one anywhere, contrive to 
cover the meat with a box. This softens the objec- 
tionableness of it somewhat. 

A few words more should be added here about the 
care and preparation of the meat, where trout breeding 
is practised on a large scale. At a trout breeding 
establishment in full operation there are three distinct 
sets of fish, the young fry, the yearlings, and the large 
trout, and there should be a dog. These three sets 
of trout require three different preparations of meat. 
For the young fry the liver is used, and is prepared by 
grating it on a cheese-grater, as described in the chap- 
ter on young fry. For the yearlings the heart is used, 
and is cut up in a meat-cutter, which will cut it finer 
than the sausage-grinder. For the large trout the 
meat that is left is run through the sausage-grinder, 
except the coarser parts, which are given to the dog. 
The heart is used for the yearlings, simply because it 
will cut up better in the cutter.* 

* The cutter used at the Cold Spring Trout Ponds is Star- 



GROWING THE L-ARGE TROUT. 



215 




Starret's American Chopping Machine. 

When, therefore, the meat is brought to the ponds, 
it is first sorted ; the Hver is cut off and laid aside for 
the young fish, the best part of the heart is cut off for 
the yearlings, the coarser pieces are saved for the dog, 
and the rest is run through the grinder for the large 
fish. This systematizes the whole thing, and disposes 
of all the meat. 

In the spring and fall you will have no trouble in 
keeping the meat ; but in the summer and winter it is 
different. The meat freezes solid in winter, and spoils 
quickly in summer, and in the exceedingly hot weather 
it is sometimes very troublesome. Your great protec- 
tion against these evils lies in the spring water. Keep 
the meat in the cold spring water, and it will not spoil 
in the summer within a reasonable time, nor freeze in 
the winter. It is true that remaining under water does 

ret's American Chopping Machine, and the sausage-grinder is 
Perry's Patent No. 4. J3oth answer their purpose very well. 



2l6 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

not improve its quality ; but the other advantages are 
more than sufficient, at extreme temperatures, to offset 
this objection. Do not feed spoiled meat to the fish. 
If you ever have any on hand, bury it in some place 
set apart for that purpose.* 

The trout feed differently at different seasons of the 
year. In the spring, when the water begins to warm 
up, they are most voracious, and will eat a larger daily 
allowance for their weight than at any other part of 
the year. During the first half of the summer their 
appetite does not diminish much, except when the wa- 
ter gets heated. When this occurs, they do not care so 
much for food. Mr. Ainsworth found that his trout in 
New York stopped eating at 70°. Mine continue to 
take food up to 75°. Above that they are more or 
less indifferent to it. As the spawning season ap- 
proaches, the trout care less and less for food, and just 
at their spawning time, and a week or two previous, 
they avoid it, and go without eating entirely. When 
their spawning is over they eat again, and are quite 
ravenous on warm days, and where the temperature of 
the water does not alter much they feed well all winter ; 
but in brooks or ponds where the water cools with the 
season their appetite falls off, and when the water 
drops to 36°, or less, they either scarcely notice the 
food or take it very languidly. At this degree of cold 
they are in a torpid condition, and there is about as 
much difference between their spring and elasticity at 
this time and in the summer, as there is between the 

* This place at the Cold Spring Trout Ponds has been nick- 
named the "Potter's Field." 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 21/ 

movements of a mud-turtle and a Scotch terrier after 
rats. On mild days in winter when the sun warms the 
water, or after a warm rain, they will wake up from 
their lethargy and eat as they do in summer. These 
are the times when they will indulge their cannibal 
instincts if they are not fed, and you should be prompt 
on such days to anticipate their unusual appetite with 
proper food. 

Trout feed differently at different times in the day. 
In the winter the favorable time is the warmest part 
of the day. In summer they take their food best 
about sundown ; they are very lively then both in the 
spring and summer, and will leap out of the water and 
lash the surface with their tails in a way that is very 
exhilarating to see. 

When the keeper approaches to feed them, they will 
come towards him, or will collect in their accustomed 
place of eating, if they have not been disturbed ; but 
if they have been molested they will fly about in all 
directions, stir up the gravel, reject their food, and act 
as if they were crazy. This is a bad sign, and when 
you see it you may know that it means that they have 
been molested and frightened during the night, prob- 
ably by minks, herons, or men. 

Once a day is sufficiently often to feed the large 
trout. They will keep fat and grow rapidly on one 
feed a day; but I think they would grow somewhat 
better if fed oftener and less at a time. There is not 
much danger of their eating too much. Feed till they 
decline the food, then stop. They will sometimes take 
too large pieces, and so choke themselves to death, 

10 



21 8 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

and they will perhaps eat enough in the excitement of 
feeding time to feel uncomfortably afterwards ; but 
they are usually not gluttons enough to gorge them- 
selves to a fatal repletion. 

Experience will teach the' trout grower how much to 
feed daily to a given number of trout. This quantity 
varies with the season, the quality, the quantity, and 
temperature of the water, and other circumstances, 
and cannot be stated definitely. Green says five 
pounds of meat a day for a thousand three-year-olds, 
three pounds for a thousand two-year-olds. I should 
say this would be an average feed through the year, 
but in summer my two-year-olds and three-year-olds 
eat much more. I think it is safe to say that under 
favorable circumstances large trout of any age will eat 
one fiftieth of their weight in the summer, that one per 
cent of their weight a day will keep them in good 
condition through the year, and that they would do 
very well on half that allowance. I have also ob- 
served that with two-year-olds and three-year-olds five 
pounds of meat food is an equivalent for one pound 
of trout growth. 

Section III. — How to secure the Large Trout 

AGAINST Loss. 

There is no domesticated creature in the world that 
can be kept with so little loss as large trout, if care- 
fully protected. Indeed, the loss is almost nothing. 
The large trout keep healthy and vigorous at all sea- 
sons, and very rarely die if properly cared for ; though 
if they are carelessly exposed they will waste away like 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 219 

dew before the sun. If you observe the following di- 
rections, many of which are only repetitions of what has 
been previously said, I think your trout will be safe : — 

1. Guard against freshets. 

2. Avoid overstocking. 

3. Guard against heated water. 

4. Handle carefully. 

5. Keep the trout well sorted. 

6. Never let the water get foul. 

7. Protect from natural enemies. 

8. Protect from poachers. 

1. Guard against freshets. So much has been said 
under this head in the chapter on suitable water, that 
we will merely refer the reader to that chapter, saying, 
€71 passant^ that the danger from this source cannot be 
overestimated, and that the losses, when they do oc- 
cur, are usually overwhelming. 

2. Avoid overstocking. There is no indiscretion in 
the world so easy for a trout breeder to fall into as 
overstocking his ponds when he has many fish and not 
much water* ; but I need not say it is a fatal mistake. 
There is usually a very dry hot time in the summer, 
which, if not a fiery furnace, is, at least, a watery fur- 
nace for the trout to pass through ; and it is often hard 
in the fall, winter, or spring, when the deceitful water 
is cold, and there is plenty of it, to realize what the 
inexorable exactions of this ordeal will be ; and al- 
most without knowing it the trout breeder will some- 
times get more trout into his stream than it will carry 
through the summer. Therefore the beginner cannot 

* See remarks on water supply and droughts, pp. 11-12. 



220 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

too carefully impress on his mind the simple truism 
that no stream can be relied on for more than what it 
will do in the hottest and dryest day of the hottest 
and dryest season of the year, and this principle 
should be acted upon. If, however, you ever happen 
to have on hand more than you know you can sum- 
mer in your stream, there is a very simple way to get 
over the difficulty, and one which I have often re- 
sorted to, namely, to turn some of the trout out to 
pasture through the dry time. I mean by this to 
carry them off to some neighboring brook where 
you have provided a temporary enclosure for them 
through the dangerous crisis ; this is not a difficult 
matter, and if you want the spawn from them in the 
fall it is expedient to do it, taking the precaution to 
remove them on cool mornings when the transporta- 
tion and handling will not be likely to hurt them. 

If you have too many on hand in the spring, and 
have no means of pasturing them, then kill and sell 
them for what you can get while they are in good con- 
dition ; it is better than to have them die of the heat. 
If you know of no one that wants them, then pack 
them in ice, and consign them to some good firm in 
Fulton Fish Market, New York City, to sell on com- 
mission. Fresh brook trout are always in demand 
there. 

But if the dry time comes suddenly, and you are 
caught with too many trout on hand and a short supply 
of water, you have two remedies. One is to use ice ; 
if you are not in a very bad predicament, a moderate 
quantity of ice, used three hours a day, — the hot 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 221 

interval between i p. m. and 4 p. 'm. being the worst 
time for the water, — will often save them. The other 
remedy is to reservoir part of the water in the stream 
above the trout during the cool of the night, and let it 
on by degrees in the hottest part of the day; this will 
answer to some extent, when the days only are hot. But 
if the heat and drought are extreme and long continued, 
and nights and days are both hot, then neither ice nor 
reserves of water will save your trout in an overstocked 
pond, and you must lose them. I will merely add that 
a plethoric condition of the fish, and an uncleanly pond, 
increase very much the dangers of the dry season. 

3. Guard against heated tvater. This point is some- 
what related to the last, inasmuch as the water is usu- 
ally the hottest at the dryest time, and the warmer it 
is the less stock it will keep. But there is also danger 
of the water heating up enough to kill the fish, even 
when there is plenty of it and the season is not par- 
ticularly dry. This point has also been discussed on 
page 12, to which the reader is referred. I will re- 
peat here that the extreme limit of danger is variable, 
depending upon the quantity, quality, and rapidity of 
the water, and also upon the degree of exposure to 
the sun, and the condition of the fish. 

The trout exhibited by the writer at the Mechanics' 
Fair, at Boston, in 1869, appeared easy with a medium 
supply of water at 68°. At 70° they were a little dis- 
tressed, at 73° much distressed, and breathing at the 
rate of 100 times a minute. Mr. Stephen H. Ainsworth, 
in a letter to the w-riter, says that 68° is the highest 
temperature that his trout do well in, at 70° they stop 



222 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

eating, at 75° begin to die, at 80° die faster, and at 
90° all die. Seth Green's book says that trout will 
die at 68°.* This may be the case in New York, but 
it is not so in New England. Trout in our vigorous 
swift running water will sometimes live through 75°. 
Still I consider 75° very dangerous, and anything over 
70° unsafe. 

There is no remedy for the water heating up, except 
artificial cooling. If you have ice enough, 5^ou can do 
something in that direction in a small stream as long 
as the ice lasts ; but it is a forlorn hope. However, 
if you find the water heating to a fatal extent, and 
think it worth while to try to save them with ice, first 
diminish their rations or stop them altogether, make 
the current as swift as possible, and then do what you 
can with ice. You will probably save some, if the 
heated term does not last too long. But if your brook 
heats up so as to require the application of ice, in any 
but very exceptional instances I should say select 
another place for your operations. Ice may save the 
fish, but it is paying too dear for the whistle, and it is 
coming a little too near danger to be desirable. 

4. Handle the fish carefully. Handle the fish care- 
fully when you have occasion to handle them at all, 
which will not be often, except in sorting, in moving 
from one pond to another, and in spawning. It makes 
a great difference in handling and carrying trout 
whether it is hot or cold weather. In winter you can 
do almost anything with them, short of using actual 
violence, without killing them ; but in very hot weather 

* Trout Culture, p. 52. 



GROWING THE 'LARGE TROUT. 223 

in summer, when they are fat and the water is warm, 
they actually seem to die before they are hurt. 

Rough handling is very often the cause of death ; 
but it is a very unnecessary and inexcusable cause. 
All the handling that needs to be done can, ninety-nine 
times in a hundred, be done without hurting the fish. 
The suggestions given in the chapter on spawning 
trout will perhaps be a sufficient guide on this point. 
I would by all means dissect at least one fish, and find 
where the vitals lie, and just hovv the viscera are 
packed together inside. You will find you can, by 
practice, squeeze a fish very hard, if you know where 
the vitals are, without killing it. Always be careful 
not to scrape off the slime from the skin, for where 
the slime is off fungus will grow, and the result is 
death. 

5. Keep your trout well sorted. I know that it is 
often said, " Feed your trout well, and they will not eat 
each other." Perhaps they will not, hut it is ?iot pru- 
dent to trust them. It is a risk, to say the least of it, 
to keep fish of different sizes in a herd together, and, 
being a risk, it ought to be avoided on principle. If 
any one doubts whether actual mischief is done by it, 
let him put five hundred trout of different sizes in a 
pond for a year, and take them out at the end of that 
time and count them over again. I think he will be 
convinced. This is something that some trout growers 
are altogether too careless about. They would not 
think of keeping foxes and fowls together, even if the 
foxes were well fed, yet they run equal risk with their 
trout, and think nothing of it. I have seen more than 



224 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

one trout pond where it was only a question of time 
about one half of the fish going down the throats of the 
other half. The fact is, trout are by nature incurable 
cannibals, and they will always gratify their natural in- 
stincts, to some extent at least, and will sometimes 
carry them to a very destructive length.* 

My advice is, where you have different-sized trout 
confined, to draw off your pond, or, if you cannot draw 
it off, sweep out all the fish with a sweep seine, and 
sort them thoroughly at stated intervals. In sorting, it 
is well to remember that there is six times as much 
mischief from having one large one with six small 
ones than six large ones with one small one, because 
the one large one will eat up all the small ones, while 
the whole of the other six can eat only the small one. 
The most dangerous times, when the trout are not kept 
sorted, are just after a rain in the spring or summer, 
and when the weather suddenly moderates in the win- 
ter. In the first case the disturbed water prevents 
their taking their regular feed, and they get very hun- 
gry in consequence, and in the other case the warm 

* I once had some full-grown trout, of the peculiarly large va- 
riety found in Monadnoc Lake, confined in a small pond, and 
one autumn had occasion to remove them, and put in a number 
of small brook trout. The pond was a covered one, and the 
fish were not particularly examined through the winter. In the 
spring, when the cover was removed, it was found that more than 
one half of the brook trout had disappeared. A thorough search 
of the pond revealed a large and very fat Monadnoc trout hidden 
in a dark hole, where he had been overlooked in the removal of 
the others. He had eaten at least one hundred two or three 
ounce trout during the winter. 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 225 

Winter days sharpen their appetites. In either case, if 
you do not anticipate the cravings of their instincts 
with your food, the smaller trout will pay the penalty 
of their lives. It makes no difference with the large 
ones whether they can wholly swallow those they 
kill or not. They seize them by the middle, whirl 
them round as herons do, and swallow them head 
down. If they cannot swallow the whole fish at first, 
they will begin digesting the end that is down, and 
swallow the rest as it comes along. 

I will also suggest the following precaution here, 
though it is a little out of place. If you have two 
ponds on the same brook, one below the other, with 
large fish in one and small fish in the other, make it 
doubly sure that none of the large ones can by any 
possibility escape into the pond of smaller ones. Do 
not be satisfied with leaving things so that you think 
this cannot happen, but make it impossible by any 
mishap short of an earthquake, for the possible conse- 
quences cannot be exaggerated ; and what makes it all 
the worse is that, should a large trout get among the 
small ones, and adopt cannibal habits, he would keep 
himself completely hidden, — such is the habit of can- 
nibal fish, — and you might not discover him till his 
ravages had been very disastrous. Fix your ponds, 
therefore, so that no freshet, or clogging up of the 
screens, or other contingency, can make it possible for 
the large ones to jump over, creep under, or in any 
other way get into the pond of small ones. 

6. Never let the water get foul. The source of foul- 
ness in the water, whenever it occurs, is, of course, the 

10* o 



226 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

feed which falls to the bottom of the pond and the 
effete matter commg from the fish. If these accmiiu- 
late in any great quantity, danger is imminent. The 
fish are, so to speak, on the edge of a precipice, and 
the first warm day may bring great loss. 

There is but one remedy for a foul pond, except re- 
moving the fish and digging it out anew, and that is 
the use of earth. This remedy, though the only one, 
is a sure one. Earth, as is now well known, is a won- 
derful absprbent of foul gases. Therefore, when the 
bed of your pond gets foul, and it is not convenient to 
clean it out, throw in a layer of three inches, or, if very 
foul, of six inches of common earth. This wall make 
the pond as sweet and clean as it ever was, and the 
fish, too, will be better for it. Do not be afraid of 
muddying the water. Muddy water never killed a 
trout yet, though thousands have died for the want 
of it. 

Beginners are here cautioned against drawing down 
the pond, when it gets foul, in order to remove the 
fish, for this is the very surest thing to make matters 
worse. The water becomes thick with the offending 
matter, when the pond is drawn off, and it will cer- 
tainly sicken the fish and check their growth, if it does 
not kill them outright. It is not so dangerous with ' 
large trout as with young fry, thousands of which have 
been killed by this practice ; but it is bad enough with 
fish of any size, and never ought to be resorted to. 

It is a good plan to keep a few moderate-sized 
suckers or mullets {Catostomi) — mullets are the hand- 
somer fish — in your ponds for scavengers. They do 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 22/ 

good service at this work, they are perfectly harmless, 
and will clean the bottom of the pond of whatever food 
escapes the mouths of the trout. Every trout pond, 
I think, should contain one or more of them. 

7. Protect from natural enemies. The natural ene- 
mies of large trout in New England are herons, fish 
hawks, and minks. Kingfishers are also very destruc- 
tive to yearlings, and will /'/// two-year-olds, if they 
do not eat them. Snakes also prey on yearlings, and 
will sometimes swallow a two-year-old ; but these two 
latter enemies are chiefly formidable to yearlings. 
The best protection against the birds is to cover the 
pond. A plain rack, made of inch-strips of pi^e, laid 
about two inches apart, answers very well for this pur- 
pose. The birds will not go through the slats for the 
fish. The rafts which are put on the pond to shade it 
are some protection against birds, especially king- 
fishers ; but herons will stand on the rafts themselves, 
and with their long necks reach the incautious trout 
in their hiding-places underneath. Herons have very 
capacious throats, a passion for fish, and a rapid diges- 
tion. They are consequently very much to be dreaded. 
They do their mischief evenings and mornings, but 
mostly in the early morning ; and as they are not 
very wary birds, you can usually shoot them, if you get 
up early enough. They are waders, also, and, having 
very long feet, they are easily caught alive, by setting 
traps in the mud where their foot-tracks have been 
discovered. I once caught a large blue heron so, with 
five two-year-old trout in his throat. If you get one 
alive, and are at all incredulous about their trout- 



228 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

destroying capacity, keep him till he is hungry, and 
then give him a panful of live minnows to eat. He 
will soon show what herons can do in stowing away 
fish, and will remove, I think, all scepticism from your 
mind henceforth about the destructiveness of herons 
among trout. The kingfishers are easily shot. They 
generally come early in the morning, or about three 
hours before sundown ; but, if not molested, they will 
stay around all day, and increase in numbers very fast. 
Approach them with a gun, if you can. If you are not 
able to get within gunshot, lie in wait for them near 
one of their favorite perches about the ponds, and 
they will usually soon come within gunshot of their 
own accord. You' can also trap them, by erecting a 
tall pole over the pond, and, setting a steel trap or 
bird-trap on the top of it ; it will not be long before 
the kingfisher will alight on the pole to watch for his 
prey, and w^ill be caught. The same trick answers for 
hawks. Minks are not so easy to manage. The best 
chance is to trap them on their way to the ponds 
in the fall, as that is the time when they make their 
way up the brooks. Green's method of trapping 
minks, which is the best I know of, is as follows : 
" Make a box eighteen inches long by six inches 
broad and deep, leaving one end open. Set a com- 
mon game-trap (such as is used for catching muskrats) 
in the open end of the box, in such a position that 
when the jaws are closed they will be in a line with 
the length of the trap. If it is set crossways it will be 
apt to throw the mink out, instead of catching it. Put 
the bait in the further end of the box (a piece of meat 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 229 

or a dead fish will answer for bait), set the trap, and 
cover it over with a large leaf. Now there is only one 
way for the mink to get at the bait, which is by walk- 
ing over the trap." You will be very likely to catch 
the mink in this way, though you will probably get a 
few house cats first. When minks begin to infest 
your waters, you will see the advantage of plank ponds 
over earth ponds ; for in plank ponds the minks can- 
not hide permanently, but must come and go every 
time they make a meal off the fish. On the contrary, 
in the earth ponds they will find some old muskrat- 
hole or other place where they will probably take 
up winter quarters ; and when the ground is frozen 
solid for a foot or two below the surface it will be 
found very hard to dislodge them. It is almost im- 
possible to trap them then, for two reasons. In the 
first place, as they have a subterranean passage to 
their daily food they seldom appear above ground, 
where they can be caught or shot ; and, secondly, hav- 
ing plenty of the food which they like best, namely, 
live trout, you have nothing better to tempt them into 
a trap with. Your only chance is this. Place a dry 
plank on the north side of the pond, so that one end 
rests in the water and the other slants some ways up 
the bank. Put a steel trap on the plank, near the 
lower end, and fasten it so that the mink, if caught, 
will throw it into the water. Minks like to sun them- 
selves in the winter, and though your intrenched ene- 
my will not be baited into a trap, he will sometimes 
step into one in trying to get to a dry spot in the sun. 
If minks are so troublesome as to warrant the outlay. 



230 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

enclose the pond on all sides and on the top so tightly 
that a mink cannot get in ; then you are safe. 

There is no way to manage the snakes but to kill 
them ; but they are not so very destructive to large 
trout ; and, if you keep off all other enemies, I do not 
think you will suffer much from snakes. 

Poachers. 

I know the prevailing opinion is now that there is 
not much danger from poachers. I wish to lift up my 
voice against this delusion. Your trout in an exposed 
pond are just about as safe as your money would be 
in it ] indeed, in some respects, not so safe, for there 
are people who will steal trout who would not steal 
money. Yet persons will lock up their money in vaults 
in banks, and then not feel safe, and will leave a hun- 
dred or a thousand dollars' worth of trout in an un- 
protected pond and think there is not much risk. It 
is a great mistake. I would throw every barrier I 
possibly could between my trout and trout-thieves, and 
would make my ponds just* as secure from poacher 
raids as the value of their contents will warrant. 

Poachers are of three classes. First, the regular 
thief. He steals the trout the same as he steals his 
firewood and poultry, because he prefers to get his 
living that way. He comes regularly, but, with a 
thief's caution, by the least suspected path, and usually 
takes just enough each time not to have them missed. 
A year's steady work at it, however, will leave its 
marks on your trout stock, you may depend. Possibly 
the role will be changed some time, and all your trout 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 2$ I 

be taken off in one night and shipped to market and 
sold. It is of no use to say that the law will keep 
this kind off. The law has no effect on them. They 
make a business of breaking the law, and if it does not 
keep them from other property it will not keep them 
from trout. 

The second class of poachers are those who steal 
the fish partly for the lark of it, and partly because 
they want the fish, and have not enough principle to 
care whether it is right or wrong. The law restrains 
these somewhat, and makes their visits scarcer, but 
does not keep them off entirely. 

The third class are those who have principle enough 
not to steal other things, but seem to have such a 
passion for trout fishing that a stocked trout pond is a 
temptation they cannot resist. I will only say of these, 
that the sight of their names in print would be a start- 
ling revelation of what otherwise respectable persons 
can be sometimes tempted into doing. 

With these three classes of poachers about, your trout 
are never secure. So I would say, make the safety 
of your ponds just as near a certainty as you can. 
Do not trust to people's being too honest, or too indo- 
lent, or too unenterprising to take your trout, for there 
are dishonesty, cunning, and enterprise enough in the 
world to steal them twenty times over, and it is 
more than likely that these qualities exist in the very 
neighborhood of your ponds. The true plan is to 
put temptation out of the way of all by interposing 
impassable barriers between the trout and the thieves ; 
and a? a guide to what may be done, we will give a 



232 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

brief description of the safeguards employed at the 
Cold Spring Trout Ponds. There is, first, an admis- 
sion-fee to the grounds, and visitors are required to 
register their names. This has a good effect in vari- 
ous ways. It keeps the crowd unfamiliar with the 
temptation, which is a good deal j for persons who 
have never seen the trout in the daytime are much 
less likely to come for them at night than those who 
have seen them often. Poachers might say of trout 
what Pope said of vice, — 

When " seen too oft, familiar with its face. 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 

An admittance fee also makes the number of visi- 
tors so small that any suspicious persons taking obser- 
vations for a midnight raid are likely to be noticed. 
At all events, it makes you feel safer than if there 
were people around your ponds all day that you did 
not know anything about. Finally, if a fee is objec- 
tionable to your taste, you need not take it any oftener 
than you like. Giving notice that one is charged will 
answer the purpose. 

Secondly, a copy of the statute in regard to poach- 
ing is placed where all can read it. This has a good 
effect, for a quiet contemplation of six months' im- 
prisonment, as the penalty is in New Hampshire, or 
$ loo fine, as it is in some other places, is a serious 
damper on the ardor of at least some minds possessed 
of poaching proclivities. 

Thirdly, a tight board fence eight feet high (and it 
should be higher), closely spiked at the top, surrounds 
the ponds of large trout. This, it is true, will not 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 233 

prevent a resolute thief from climbing over and getting 
the fish, if he has made up his mind that he will have 
them, but it nevertheless reduces the number very 
much of the dangerous ones, and limits them to the 
very enterprising only. There are a hundred poachers 
who will steal up and throw their lines into an open 
pond, where there is one who will bring a ladder and 
scale a spiked fence and descend on the other side, 
where he does not know how many spring guns, or bull- 
dogs, or what not, there may be inside to receive him. 
A spiked enclosure lessens the chances of loss by 
poaching very much. 

Fourthly, there is at the Cold Spring Trout Ponds 
a dog whose ferocity I have never seen surpassed 
except in a chained tiger (one of Van Amburgh's) 
at a menagerie we once visited, and who is as stanch 
and as incorruptible as he is ferocious. This dog 
" Jack " is the last thing in the world a poacher would 
like to encounter in a spiked enclosure, and adds very 
much, I think, to the safety of the fish. He is cer- 
tainly a terror to all who know him. It is true a watch- 
dog can be shot or poisoned, and so be got out of the 
way j but he is at least another barrier to danger, and 
as long as he lives, at all events, he is a protection. 

There are other safeguards inside of the fence which 
are disclosed only to the poachers themselves, but 
which make the way of the transgressor exceedingly 
perilous. We would add here that the racks which 
are put over the ponds to keep ofi" the birds are also 
a protection against a line being thrown over the fence 
among the trout. But for all the protection of these 



234 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

safeguards there is one better than all, and that is to 
have your dwelling-house or your keeper's house either 
over or close to the ponds. Then with a dog that will 
give the alarm at the approach of danger you may 
consider your trout as near safe as the nature of the 
case permits. 

Section IV. — Adult Trout. — How to grow 
Trout to a very large Size, and rapidly. 

Trout show their keeping as well as any other crea- 
ture, and more than most. I have seen a trout that 
was reasonably believed to be but two years old that 
weighed a pound, and I have seen one of the same 
age that barely turned the scales at half an ounce. 
The larger one had been in a warm stream which 
swarmed with blood-suckers, than which there is no 
more growing food in the world for trout. The other 
happened to be confined in a small enclosure of very 
cold water, almost destitute of food. These instances 
show what a difference unlike conditions will make 
in the growth of a trout. You can grow them at an 
almost incredible rate, or you can dwarf them to an 
almost incredible degree. 

If you want to dwarf trout, keep them in cold sun- 
less water, in close confinement, and with little food, 
and you will do it. 

If you want to grow them fast and large, observe the 
following directions : — 

I. Give them plenty of water. Of two similar lots 
of trout confined in the same amount of space and 
kept on the same amount of food, those which have 
the largest supply of water will grow the best. 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 235 

2. Give them plenty of food. Trout will not grow 
in exact proportion to the food which is given them, 
because their growth is modified by so many other 
conditions ; but you may be sure of this, that the 
more you feed them, and the more often, under any 
conditions, the better they will grow. 

3. Keep them where the zvater warms tip in the 
Slimmer^ say to 65° or nearly 70°. You cannot grow 
trout fast or large in very cold water. Feed them and 
care for them the best you can, they must, neverthe- 
less, have comparatively warm water ; and in such 
water, with plenty of food, range, and space, their rate 
of growth is simply wonderful. 

4. Give them rafige. If you want to grow your trout 
very large, you must give them range. I say if you 
want to grow them vei-y large. Range is not neces- 
sary, by any means, to the average growth of trout, for 
they will grow to a very good size in small places, and 
it is also generally incompatible with trout growing as 
a business to give them great range ; but, if you want 
to raise the very largest trout, you must give them the 
very largest range. Trout will not grow beyond a cer- 
tain size in confinement. They will stop or nearly 
stop growing when they have reached a certain limit. 
Range also influences the rate of growth. Large 
ponds grow trout faster, as a rule, than small ponds. 
Put ten trout into a pool three feet square, and ten 
others in a pond three rods square, and those in the 
pond will grow very much faster than those in the 
pool, on the same food. In a pond of three acres 
they would grow faster yet. 



236 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

5. Give them plenty of space. I mean by space the 
amount of cubic feet of room to each fish in a pond. 
This, of course, is not synonymous with range. As, 
for instance, a thousand head of cattle in a pasture 
would have as much range as ten head, but ten head 
confined in it alone would have a hundred times the 
space. Space is something which cannot be afforded 
by trout growers generally, but it is necessary to the 
very large and rapid growth of trout. Put one thou- 
sand trout in a pond twenty feet square, and ten trout 
in another pond of the same size, and keep both lots 
on the same food, and you will be astonished to see 
how much the growth of the smaller lot exceeds that 
of the larger lot. Much space is not necessary to 
keep trout alive in and doing well, but it is neverthe- 
less indispensable to very large growth. 

The suggestions of this chapter are intended more 
for amateurs and those who wish to experiment on 
raising very large trout than for those who make a busi- 
ness of trout raising ; for though the raising of very 
large trout is a desirable thing always, it is not often 
consistent with the best economy, — smaller trout and 
more of them, with perfect security, being a more profit- 
able end to seek. 

Section V. — Daily Care of the Large Trout. 

The mere daily care of the large trout is almost 
nothing, if the arrangements for keeping them are 
right to begin with. I know of no domesticated crea- 
ture which requires so little daily care. With the ex- 
ception of feeding them once a day, and keeping the 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 23/ 

inlets and outlets clear, you need not bestow a thought 
on them for weeks. They do not require daily groom- 
ing like a horse, or daily milking like a cow, or careful 
housing in winter like sheep, or watching like poultry. 
If you have made the ponds safe from the changes of 
weather and the attacks of enemies, the trout will be, 
summer and winter, their own keepers, with your as- 
sistance once a day in giving them their food, and 
twice a year in sorting them. They can even be kept 
without eating for several days without the injurious 
results which would follow similar neglect with other 
domesticated creatures. There is also seldom or never 
any sickness among large trout kept in suitable waters. 
This is a very striking feature of trout growing, and a 
very favorable one. It is astonishing how many you 
can keep in a pond of good water the year round 
without danger of sickness or loss by death. Fowls 
confined in numbers get sick and die. Disease breaks 
out and spreads among large flocks of sheep and herds 
of cattle when confined, but you can keep thousands 
of trout in a very small enclosure of good water in per- 
fect health all the year round. Indeed, there is no 
other creature above the grade of insects, except other 
fish, that you can keep in such large numbers and in 
so small a space with so little risk of disease and 
death. This is one of the most remarkable points 
about growing the large trout, and reduces the labor 
of taking care of them to a minimum. To be sure, 
the general work cofineded with keeping the large trout 
is very considerable, such as taking the eggs, prepar- 
ing the spawning-beds, and the like ; but the mere 
daily care of the fish themselves is very trifling. 



238 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Section VI. — Marketing the Large Trout. 

Marketing the trout is a simple process. You take 
a paii, some small pieces of ice, a little food, and a 
hard-wood stick about a foot long, or a piece of iron, 
to kill the trout with, and go to the pond. Place a 
large tub near where you are going tcr take out the 
fish, fill it half full of water, throw a little food into the 
pond, and, when the fish come for it, take out a netful, 
and empty them into the tub. Sort out what fish you 
want to kill, and throw back the rest, then, lifting the 
fish up one by one with the left hand, strike a sharp 
blow on the top of the skull with the instrument in the 
right. This will kill them at once, which is an impor- 
tant point gained. Put the dead ones immediately 
with the ice in the pail, and take them to the scales to 
weigh them. Having noted down their weight, pack 
them in a box of pounded ice and sawdust, nail up 
the box, label it, and send it to the express-office. In 
filling a twenty-pound order, this can be done so 
quickly that the trout can be on their way within half 
an hour after you go to the ponds for them, and they 
need not have been exposed to the air (without ice) 
three minutes in all. Killed and packed in this way, 
they will open twenty-four hours afterwards as fresh 
and hard as when they were taken out of the ponds, 
and will be a great deal harder than trout caught by 
fishermen in the wild brooks the same mornino:. The 
proprietor of the Parker House at Boston, to whom I 
have furnished trout for several years, said that the 
Cold Spring Trout, which were killed and packed in 



GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 239 

this way, came the best of any they had ever had in 
the house. Yet his house is one hundred and twenty 
miles from the ponds. 

The best time to kill fish for the table is, as a rule, 
that season of the year which is the antipodes of the 
spawning season. The best time, therefore, to begin 
to market trout is in the spring, just after their spring 
appetite comes on. They are then hard and plump, 
and in first-rate condition. From then till July they 
do very well to market. After that they steadily de- 
teriorate. As the spawning season approaches, their 
flesh weighs less compared with their size. They 
gain very much in weight between April ist and July 
ist, sometimes fifty per cent and over, which makes 
it desirable on that account to hold them till July. On 
the other hand, the prices are best at the beginning of 
the season, and fall very considerably by July. My 
trout, sent to Fulton Market, New York, and sold on 
commission, April i, 187 1, brought $ 1.25 per pound. 
Before the month was out the price had fallen to 
90 cents. 

The question as to the age at which it is most profit- 
able to market trout is an important one. I think that 
it is the spring of the fourth or fifth year. It cannot 
be earlier than this, for the trout get some of their 
best, if not their very best, growth the third year, and 
to kill them before they are three years old would cut 
off nearly all the increase from them. 

There are also reasons why they are most profitably 
killed before they are older than four years. The 
ratio of their growth to the cost of keeping has then 



240 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

reached its maximum, at least in small artificial ponds, 
and is on the wane. Every year after that they are 
kept also increases the general risk. They are at this 
age of the best marketable size, — very large trout not 
being as salable as pound-trout or less. 

This question, however, of the most profitable age 
to market the fish varies with circumstances, and it 
is one which every trout breeder will doubtless best 
settle for himself, though the above suggestions may 
perhaps, in some measure, serve as a guide. 

The New York market is the best market in the 
country for first-class trout, as it is for game of every 
description. The Boston market falls very much be- 
low it, and most of the smaller cities are very poor 
places indeed to which to send trout for sale in the 
public markets. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 

Section I. — The Work in General at a Trout- 
Breeding Establishment. 

THE work at a trout-breeding establishment varies 
with the season of the year. In the summer, when 
the work is the Hghtest, it is a routine nearly as fol- 
lows. You go to the ponds in the morning, examine the 
streams,* and clean the screens. You then take the 
meat as the butcher has left it, sort it for the different 
sizes of fish, grate the liver for the young fry, chop 
the heart in the cutter for the yearlings, run the rest 
through the sausage-grinder for the large trout, and 
give the refuse to the dog. You next take the feeder 
and feed the fry, and examine them thoroughly ; then 
the yearlings, then the large fish. You then feed the 

* I would like here to caution beginners, when going the 
rounds for the purpose of seeing if everything is right, never to 
take anything for granted, but, on the contrary, to look over the 
works with the expectation of finding something wrong. Though 
you may have left everything perfectly safe, as you supposed, the 
day before, a dozen things may have occurred during the night 
to make trouble. I could mention numberless instances where 
losses have occurred from the keeper taking for granted that 
everything was right, and consequently overlooking something 
that was wrong. 

II P 



242 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

young fry again, and if in spring water, give them 
earth twice a week. Set things in order, observe the 
progress of your experiments if you have any, see that 
everything is left right, and then, if no accident has 
happened, your work is done for the morning. 

In the afternoon you feed the young fry again twice 
and the yearlings once, leave things right for the night, 
and the work is done for the day, if it is a fair day. 
If it is a rainy day, the streams and screens will need 
more watching and care, and there will perhaps be 
gates and flash-boards to alter. 

You will also during the summer probably have 
some improvements to make, and some changing and 
sorting of the young fry, if you have many. 

As the spawning season approaches, there will be, 
among other things, in addition to the routine work, 
the spawning races to clear out and bed with clean 
gravel, the hatching troughs to clean out and prepare 
for use, new flannel filters to make, moss to get in for 
packing the eggs, traps to set, and special precautions 
to take against the fall freshets. 

After the spawning season begins, there will be the 
feeding, the spawning the fish, the laying down of the 
eggs, orders to fill, and the daily examination of the 
eggs. If you secure a good impregnation this latter 
job will not be much, but if you have poor luck im- 
pregnating, it will be a great burden all through the 
winter, increasing every day till long after the fish be- 
gin to hatch. After the hatching commences, and the 
empty eggs are all picked out, there is a lull in the 
work till the new fry begin to feed. It is then very 



CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 243 

cold. The old trout will need to be fed but three or 
four times a week, the yearlings not much oftener, the 
young fry only once or twice a day, and there will now 
be no more bad eggs to pick out. Thus the work is 
very much lessened ; but it is the lull before the storm, 
if this expression may be used, for soon the young fry 
begin to feed, and their thousands or hundreds of 
thousands of mouths must be fed five or six times 
a day. The shells of the hatched eggs, now be- 
ing constantly shed by the young fish, clog up the 
screens, and make incessant watching of them neces- 
sary. 

Very likely the frost and muskrats are making trou- 
ble with the ponds or aqueducts outside, and altogether 
this is usually made a very busy time, the burden of 
which is not at all lessened by the shortness of the days 
and the excessive cold. As the spring advances the 
young fry are thinned out by sales, they require to be 
fed less often, the fry of last year have become year- 
lings, the days lengthen, the weather grows warmer, 
and the work becomes easier and pleasanter, until the 
sales of the young fry are over. The balance of them 
are soon turned into their nurseries, rearing-boxes, or 
ponds, and the labor is reduced again to the mere rou- 
tine of the summer. 

The cares of a trout-breeding establishment in full 
operation are very considerable most of the time, and 
fcAv beginners will be wholly able to free themselves 
from consequent anxiety ; but this is more than bal- 
anced a hundred times over by the constant interest 
and ever-increasing enthusiasm which the beautiful 



244 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

creatures inspire at every stage of their growth. There 
is no time when they are not beautiful and intensely 
interesting, and it is not exaggerating to say that at 
some particular periods, as, for instance, the spawn- 
ing season, the first appearance of the embryo in 
the egg, and the hatching of the egg, afford to a 
lover of nature a most pleasurable excitement, which 
would seem to be satisfying even to those who think 
that it takes a good deal of excitement to satisfy 
them. 

On the whole, I should say that the work of a trout 
farm is attended with considerable care, and at first 
with some anxiety, but also with a corresponding in- 
terest and enjoyment, and not without a very consider- 
able degree of pleasurable excitement at times. 

The Pecuniary Aspect of Trout Culture. 

One of the chief inquiries at the present time in re- 
gard to trout culture is whether it can be made a prof- 
itable business. In reply to this inquiry I have no 
hesitation in saying that I think trout breeding can be 
made profitable anywhere in the settled portions of 
this country where there is plenty of suitable water ; 
but to be very profitable it must be on a large scale. 
It will not pay great profits to raise a thousand trout 
a year, but a handsome income will be made from 
raising ten thousand a year. 

I find that the cost of growing trout is very small 
indeed, and that the returns are very large indeed. 

It costs no more to keep a thousand trout each, of 
the three different sizes, springlings, yearlings, and 



CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 245 

two-year-olds, than it does in the country to keep a 
horse, and what would keep a pair of horses at a sta- 
ble in the city would enable a man to turn out five 
thousand pound of trout a year. 

The current expenses of a trout-breeding establish- 
ment consist of three classes, viz. : i. The rent of the 
place or the interest on the original outlay, plus the 
wear and tear, which together should be reckoned at 
12%. 2. The care of the fish, which is not much for 
a small stock of trout, and grows (comparatively) less 
the more fish you have. 3. The cost of feed, which 
is very small, amounting, perhaps, to 3 cents a pound. 
All which items of expense do not make the full- 
grown trout cost over 15 or 20 cents a pound, if suc- 
cessfully raised. 

On the other hand, trout bring from 50 cents a 
pound to $ 1.25, 75 cents being, I should say, a fair 
average, at the present time, in the neighborhood of 
Boston and New York. 

Here we see a large margin for profit, and I think it 
is a fair one, when a man raises his trout successfully. 
It all depends on this, of course. If he cannot keep 
his trout alive and secure, he cannot expect to make 
anything at the business. 

I should say the following estimate approximated 
the truth : — 

If you have first-rate water facilities, and should 
hatch 20,000 young fry and raise them all to be four 
years old on food at 3 cents a pound, they would cost 
you, after you began to market the fish, not over 18 
cents a pound. If you raise half, all your expenses 



246 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

being the same, with the exception of food, they will 
cost about 24 cents a pound. If you raise one fourth, 
they will cost somewhere near 36 cents a pound. If 
you raise one eighth, about 54 cents a pound. If you 
raise less than this, they will cease to pay a profit. 

To assist the beginner in estimating his expected ex- 
penses and returns, I will give the following maxims : — 

a. Under favorable circumstances, five pounds of 
meat food may be considered an equivalent for one 
pound of trout growth with two-year-olds and three- 
year-olds. 

b. For any given quantity of two or three year olds 
one per cent of their weight may be regarded as an 
adequate average daily ration the year round. 

c. Two and three year olds will double their weight 
annually, and can be made to do so in the six months 
from May to September, by extra care and feeding. 

d. Good food for grown-up trout, namely, lungs and 
plucks of slaughtered animals, can be purchased any- 
where for two or three cents a pound. The cost of 
the actual food of the young fry the first six months is 
inappreciable. For further information see chapter 
on food. 

e. First-class trout bring $1.00 a pound in Fulton 
Market in April, and can be forced, almost any time, 
when in season, at 50 cents. 

f. Freshly killed trout, well packed in ice and saw- 
dust, will stand a direct journey in the summer, by 
rail, of five hundred miles, without injury. 

Mr. Stephen H. Ainsworth's estimate of profits, 
published five years ago (1866), is as follows: — 



CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 247 

Cost of buildings and fixtures . . . . . $ 6,000 

5,000 parents for spawn, at 50 cents . . . 2,500 

Three men's labor for four years, at $300 per year 3,600 

Cost of food for 1,000,000 trout for 4 years . . 20,000 

" " " " 3 years . . 10,000 

" " " " 2 years . . 4,000 

" " " " I year . . 1,000 



Total $47,100 
Now for their value. The million of four-year-olds will aver- 
age a pound each, and are worth at least twenty-five cents per 
pound in the pond, which makes the 

1,000,000 4-year-olds worth .... $250,000 
" 3-year-olds, J pound each . . 175,000 

" 2-year-olds, 5 pound each . . . 87,000 

" I -year-olds, 7 oz. each . . . 30,000 

The worth of all trouble at the end of four years $ 542,000 
Deduct the price of growing .... 47,000 



Profit $ 495.000 

As these figures stand, they cannot serve as a guide 
to fish-breeders at present, for no one begins to carry 
on the business on this immense scale. But suppose 
we divide the figures by 50, which brings the scale 
within reach, we then have a profit of $ 10,000 on an 
establishment turning out 20,000 four-year-old trout 
annually. This, I believe, would be not far from the 
truth but /or one itejn, which Mr. Ains worth did not 
take in, but which closely follows every business like 
an evil genius, namely, risk. What this fluctuating 
item ought to be in the above calculation, I will not 
attempt to say, but I am afraid that at the time the 
estimate was made it was more than enough to swal- 
low up the profits. It has been growing less and less 



248 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

every year, as trout growing has become better under- 
stood, and I believe the time is near at hand when 
Mr. Ainsworth's figures may be reaUzed on a reduced 
scale, with not more than 50% deducted from the 
profits to cover the items of risk. 

It may occur to some to inquire what makes the 
item of risk so large. I will reply that it is because 
the business is new, and but little understood, the 
subject-matter is of a peculiarly hazardous sort, and, 
perhaps more than all, fish-breeders will not take pains 
to insure the security which is absolutely necessary to 
success, and which has been dwelt upon so emphati- 
cally in earlier portions of this treatise. These things 
have made the risk very great, and account for the 
very significant fact, that, in the five years since Mr. 
Ainsworth's table was published, no one has made 
a fortune by raising trout for the table, or even to my 
knowledge derived any very extraordinary income from 
this source alone. 

I think, however, the next five years will tell a dif- 
ferent story, and I am very much mistaken if some of 
the trout ponds now under way do not yield within 
that time some very handsome returns from their mar- 
keted trout. 

Thus far we have considered the business of trout 
growing in only one of its branches of profit, namely, 
raising marketable trout. There are, as is well known, 
two other sources of revenue : — 

1. The sale of spawn. 

2. The sale of young stock. 

The first branch can hardly be considered a legiti- 



CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 249 

mate branch on which to base permanent returns, be- 
cause the sale of spawn is Hmited to establishments that 
are just commencing operations. This trade is a large 
one now, because so many establishments are starting ; 
but these will soon furnish their own spawn and be- 
come sellers instead of buyers, and when the prospec- 
tive fish-breeding operations of the country are all 
under way there will be a great supply of eggs with a 
very disproportionate demand. Indeed, the prospect 
is that the spawn trade will not be a permanent one of 
any great value, and therefore cannot be regarded, in 
its present state at least, as a legitimate ground for 
basing permanent expectations. 

It is not so, however, with the trade in young fry 
and yearlings for stocking other waters. It is a uni- 
versal custom now with owners of small gardens to 
buy their young cabbages and tomatoes, and other 
vegetables, of the large producers, because it is 
cheaper than to start them themselves. Farmers also 
buy their pigs, instead of breeding them, from the same 
cause. Now it is only reasonable to expect the same 
rule to prevail in fish raising, as it certainly does at 
present. Many persons who have ponds and streams, 
and want to keep them stocked, will prefer, and will 
find it cheaper, to buy their young stock every year 
than to work all winter at hatching the eggs. The 
trade in young stock, therefore, looks as if it would be 
permanent, and appears to be a legitimate source from 
which to expect an income in trout-raising. 

This forms at present a very considerable item in 
the business. Young fry are in great demand in New 
II * 



250 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

England "* at $25 a thousand, and yearlings at $100 
a thousand. Many thousands of them could be sold 
at this day for these, and even at an advance on 
these prices, if the fish could be had. The supply 
this year (1871) has not nearly kept up with the de- 
mand. 

We here find in the sale of young stock quite an 
addition to the sources of the trout grower's income, 
and I am informed by those who are operating near 
the large cities that a very considerable revenue could 
be obtained at their places by charging an admission- 
fee to visitors. 

There is also money to be made by buying and fat- 
tening trout for the market, when you can buy them 
cheap enough. *Good thriving trout less than four 
years old will double their weight in a year, and some- 
times much more. Therefore, if you put a thousand 
pounds of them in a pond, securely protected, they will 

* The price-list of Cold Spring Trout Ponds for 1871 is as 
follows : — 

Trout Spawn, warranted live and healthy, per thousand $ 10.00 

Young Trout, one inch long, first thousand . . . 30.00 

Each additional thousand 25.00 

Yearling Trout, four or five inches long, per thousand 100 00 

Trout for the Table, dead weight, per pound . . . i.oo 

Salmon Spawn, warranted live and healthy, per thousand 50.00 

Each additional thousand 25.00 

Young Salmon, first thousand 100.00 

Each additional thousand 50.00 

Young Black Bass, first thousand 50.00 

Each additional thousand 25.00 

This is a fair statement of prices current. Some dealers charge 
more, some charge less. 



CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 25 I 

in a year become two thousand pounds, and the feed 
in the mean time will not cost over one hundred and 
fifty dollars. That is to say, the increase will cost you 
not over fifteen cents a pound. 

When these various sources of income are taken 
into account, in connection with the wide margins for 
profit, it is obvious that successful operations cannot 
but pay well. I would say, however, in conclusion, 
that I do not wish to hold out false inducements to 
persons to go into the business with the hope of mak- 
ing great fortunes. The item of risk is a very serious 
one yet, and small operators cannot expect to make 
more than a fair living. With many it will not pay at 
all, while it is reserved only for the very successful, 
and for those who have the few great water facilities 
of the country, to make the great fortunes. 

Section II. — Recapitulation. 

WATER. 

Cautions to be observed in selecting Water for Trout 

Breeding. 
Beware of, 

1. Insufiicient water. 

2. Freshets. 

3. Water that heats in the summer. 

4. AVater intrinsically unsuitable. 

ponds. 
Points to be secured in building Ponds. 

1. Excavate, rather than dam up. 

2. Build compactly. 



252 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

/ 

3. Build small ponds for business. 

4. Be able to draw off the water. 

5. Avoid hiding-places. 

6. Protect ponds thoroughly. 

BUILDINGS. 

A full set of buildings or rooms consists of, 

1. Hatching apartment. 

2. Meat apartment. 

3. Store-room and carpenter's shop. 

4. Office. 

5. Ice-house. 

THE HATCHING APPARATUS. 

The hatching apparatus consists of, 

1. Supply reservoir. 

2. Aqueduct. 

3. System of filters. 

4. Hatching apparatus proper. 

THE NURSERY. 

The points to be secured about the nursery are, 

1. A fall of water. 

2. A current. 

3. Protection from suction against the screens. 

4. Security from overflow. 

5. Absence of fixed hiding-places. 

6. Compactness. 

7. Protection against natural enemies. 

8. Perfectly tight compartments. 



CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 253 

TAKING THE EGGS. 

The directions for taking the eggs are, 

1. Use eggs that flow easily, and no others. 

2. Use ripe milt, and no other. 

3. Make quick work. 

4. Stir well while stripping. 

5. Allow time for eggs to separate. 

6. Rinse thoroughly. 

HATCHING THE EGGS. 
Dangers. Reitiedies. 

Fungus. ' Carbonized wood. 

Sediment. Flannel filters. 

Living enemies. Covers. 

Byssus. Daily examination. 

ALEVINS. 

Dangerous Instincts. 

1. To hide. 

2. To pursue a current of water. 

THE YOUNG FRY. 

Directions. 

1 . Have healthy well-fed breeders. 

2. Develop strong and healthy embryos in the 

3. Provide suitable place for young fry. 

4. Take good care of them. 



254 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 





LARGE 


TROUT. 




Precautions* 


Guard against, 




I. 


Freshets. 




2. 


Overstocking. 




3- 


Heated water. 




4- 


Careless handling. 




5- 


Cannibalism. 




6. 


Fouled water. 




7- 


Natural enemies. 




8. 


Poachers. 





HOW TO GROW VERY LARGE TROUT. 

Give them, 

1. Plenty of water. 

2. Plenty of foodo 

3. (Relatively) warm water. 

4. Wide range. 

5. Ample space. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX I. 
A NEW DISCOVERY. — CURE FOR FUNGUS. 

Salt a Cure for Microscopic Parasites on Trout. 

TN the spring of 1872 I began some microscopic exami- 
-■- nations of the parasites on large and small trout, which 
led to the discovery of a cure for what has hitherto been 
thought to be incurable disorder. 

It is well known that when trout become injured or un- 
healthy a fungoid growth appears in blotches over the sur- 
face of their backs, usually terminating in fatal results in a 
few days. 

It has hitherto been supposed, I believe, that the fungus 
eats into the tissues of the fish, and destroys it. The mi- 
croscope revealed, however, that it was not the fungus that 
penetrated into the fish, but a multitude of microscopic 
worms of the shape and appearance given on page 258. 
The worms are never found in the upper parts of the fun- 
gus, but just below at the roots, or where the fungus joins 
on to the surface of the skin. Here between the roots of 
the fungus and the body of the fish are found hundreds of 
these creatures incessantly in motion and apparently eat- 
ing vigorously. They are about -^^ of an inch in length 
and 2^-Q of an inch in diameter, and are provided with a 
mouth at one extremity and at the other with about twenty 
claw-like appendages for fastening on to the fish on which 
they feed. They are continually eating into the tissues of 
the fish, and the twenty tentacles enable them to fasten on 
so tightly that the fish cannot shake them off. These para- 
sites appear to live on the flesh of the fish, and the fungus 

Q 



258 



DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



to live on the digested matter into which they trans- 
form it. 




Parasites which attack Large Trout, a Tentacles for fastening to the fish ; 

b Mouth. 

This discovery led to some experiments in search of a 
remedy, and it was found that a strong solution of salt de- 
stroyed the parasites. Experiments were then made of 
immersing trout in salt water, and it was found to be per- 
fectly harmless, if not too long continued. A method was 
thus found of kilhng the parasites without killing the fish, 
which fact was confirmed by actually taking a trout cov- 
ered with fungus and immersing him in a salt bath for 
a moment or two, and afterwards keeping him by himself 
for several days. The fungus peeled off, the parasites 



APPENDIX I. 



259 



were kijled, the bare spots healed over, and the trout got 
well. Others were tried ; some died and some lived. 




a M icroscopic parasites which attack trout fry ; b Water insects supposed 
to be destructive to trout eggs. 

From all which circumstances we may, I think, draw th-e 
following conclusions : That it is the worm, and not the 



260 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

fungus, which eats into and kills the fish ; and that the fish 
can be cured, when not too much weakened, by immersion 
in a strong solution of salt.* 

A similar series of experiments led to the discovery that 
salt is also a cure for the parasites on young fish. These 
parasites are smaller than those which infest the large 
fish.f They have a circular form with a diameter of about 
-^Q of an inch. They are extremely thin, and progress by 
a rotatory movement. They sometimes swarm in immense 
numbers upon the young fish that are attacked by them. 
They do not cause a fungoid growth, as the larger ones do 
in the larger fish, but the young trout affected with them 
appear outwardly as clean and well as ever. If the para- 
sites are not removed, however, the trout will lose their 
strength and drift down toward the screen, on which they 
will probably be finally caught and die.J Salt destroys 
the parasites, and does not injure the young fry. It is, 
therefore, a remedy for the parasites. Hundreds of ex- 
periments which I tried of putting the affected young trout 
in salt water had the same result, which was to kill the 
parasites and restore the fish. 

I will also add in this connection that the salt bath 
seems to improve the young fish in other ways than by 
killing the parasites, and one lot of young fry in particular, 
confined in a small box, which I cured in this way, and to 
which I gave a pint of salt every day, appeared better than 

* r used a table-spoonful of salt to a pint of water, and kept 
the fish in it till he went over on his back, and then took him 
out and put him instantly into cold running water. 

t I have sometimes found the larger parasites in small num- 
bers on the small trout, but have never found the circular para- 
site on large trout. 

X This furnishes one explanation of what so many trout 
breeders have remarked, that their young fry seemed to die 
when they appeared perfectly healthy. 



APPENDIX I. 261 

any other young fish that I had. I have accordingly come 
to the conclusion that salt is beneficial to the young fish, 
and that large quantities can be used to advantage in the 
nurseries of the young fry, not only for the purpose of im- 
mersion, but to furnish an essential element in which the 
water has become deficient. All spring water, it is said, 
contains a modicum of salt. Perhaps this slight trace of 
salt is essential to the health of the fish. If so, then salt 
ought to be suppHed artificially when trout are kept in a 
spring stream where the supply of salt is insufficient. 



APPENDIX II. 

JOURNEYS OF LIVE FISH AND EGGS. 

T) ELOW will be found a brief account of some journeys 
-'-^ with live fish, which may serve as a guide to begin- 
ners. 

1. In May, 1868, I sent 15,000 trout fry to New York 
City and various intermediate points, in care of Mr. Frank 
H. Osgood. They left the ponds about 6 A. M., and were 
carried in ten twelve-gallon tin cans about two thirds full 
of water. The temperature was kept low and even with 
ice. The last of the lot did not reach their destination 
till eleven o'clock the next morning. The water was not 
changed, but was kept well aerated during the journey. 
Very few died. Mem. : New tin answers very well to 
transport fish in, but after it has been standing a long time 
it should be carefully scoured, as it gathers an oxide which 
seems to be partly soluble in water, and, at all events, is 
poisonous to the fish. The young salmon for the Dela- 
ware River were lost this spring from a similar cause. 

2. The same season I sent by express two lots, of 500 
trout fry each, to Providence, R. I., about 120 miles, with- 
out an attendant. They all died on the way. A lot of 
500 bass fry sent by express to Framingham, Mass., about 
100 miles, with two changes of cars, met the same fate. 
Me7n, : It is not safe usually to send hve fish without an 
attendant, at least a part of the way. 

3. In the fall of 1868 Mr. Osgood took several yearling 
trout to the New England Agricultural Fair at New 
Haven, 157 miles, and exhibited them for several days 



APPENDIX II. 263 

in a tank, occasionally changing the water. They bore 
the journey and exhibition admirably and without loss, 
receiving a well-deserved diploma. 

4. In the fall of the same year we caught live salmon in 
a stake net on the Mirimichi River, confined them for a 
while in a pen made in the river, conveyed them from the 
pen eleven miles, closely packed in a creel, and put them 
into a pond. At first many of them became covered with 
fungus and died, but as the water grew colder the trans- 
portation injured them less and less, and late in the fall 
they suffered very little from handling. 

5. In December, 1868, in very cold weather, nearly 
200,000 salmon spawn, the eye-spots then becoming visible, 
were packed, at the salmon establishment on the Mirimi- 
chi, in moss in baskets, and the baskets in large boxes, 
and taken 100 miles on a sled, 100 miles by rail, 250 miles 
by steamer, and 220 miles more by rail. They arrived 
at the Cold Spring Trout Ponds in good condition. 

6. The same winter salmon spawn and trout spawn 
packed in moss were sent to Hon. Frank T. Buckland, 
H. B. M. Commissioner of Fisheries. The trout spawn 
arrived in England in first-rate condition, and also that 
portion of the salmon eggs which did not hatch on the 
way, but it was so late in the season that some of the 
embryos hatched and perished. 

7. In the spring of 1869, 3,000 salmon fry were sent in 
two twelve-gallon cans to the South Side Sportsmen's Club, 
Long Island, in care of an attendant. The water was kept 
cold with ice, and the salmon did well till about 10 P. M., 
when they were on the New York steamer, and had been 
sixteen hours on their journey. At this time the water 
was partly changed, and water from the boat was used. 
Nearly 2,000 died immediately, the rest reaching their des- 
tination safely. 

8. Another lot of 2,000, to make up this loss, was sent 



264 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

soon afterwnrds, in a similar way, but the water was not 
changed during the joiirney^ though ice was used freely. 
They all reached their destination safely, after a journey 
of about thirty* hours. Mejn. : It is much safer to keep 
the fish in water that you are acquainted with than to use 
that with which you are not acquainted. 

Q. In the spring of 1869 I had three lots of Lake Cham- 
plain and Missisquoi River fish transported to Charlestown, 
N. H., consisting of Black Bass {Grystes fasciatiis) ; 
Glass-eyed Pike {Luciopercd) ; Red-fin Mullets {Catosto- 
iniis) ; White-tailed Mullets {Catostomtis) ; Lake Cham- 
plain Shad, Whitefish {Coregoitiis) ; Suckers {Catosto- 
711118) '. Mascalonge [Esox^ gill-covers bare) ; Pickerel 
{Esoxy gill-covers sealed) ; Hornpouts, Bull-heads {Pi- 
inelodiis) ; Yellow Perch {Perca Jlavescens) ; Sheep's 
Head, Drumfish {Ainblodon). Their journey was a long 
and severe one. They were first taken in a seine, and 
confined in a pound a day or two, then transferred to a 
hundred-gallon wooden tank, and conveyed ten miles in a 
row-boat to the village of S wanton, Vt., thence to the railroad 
station by wagon, thence to St. Albans by rail, where they 
waited several hours for the connecting train. They then 
travelled 152 miles by rail to Charlestown, where they 
were received in a wagon and driven to the Ponds. Ice 
was used plentifully on the way, probably too much, they 
being warm-water fish, and the water was more or less 
aerated. The result was very different with different fish. 
There were about forty fish in the tank each time, all full 
grown, and averaging two pounds apiece. All the shad 
(whitefish) died almost immediately, most of the sheep's- 
heads died early also, and almost all the glass-eyed pike. 
The mullets, perch, suckers, hornpouts, and pickerel lived. 
Most of the black bass lived. The survivors are still at 
the Cold Spring Trout Ponds, and are doing well. Mem. : 
Ice should be used cautiously with warm-water fish. The 



APPENDIX II. 265 

Lake Champlain shad (whitefish) cannot be transported 
in the spring. 

10. In September, 1869, ten large trout, hatched at 
Charlestown, and measuring nearly a foot in length, were 
taken for exhibition at the Mechanics' Fair in Boston. 
They survived the journey very vi^ell, although they were 
kept two days and one night in a tank of forty gallons of 
water. They were ultimately placed in a glass tank in the 
rotunda of Ouincy Hall, where an arrangement had been 
made to run a constant stream of water over them. The 
temperature of the water varied from 65° to 73°, but was 
kept down somewhat with ice. The trout lived about ten 
days when they all died. A second lot was sent for, which 
survived the remaining two weeks of the exhibition. They 
received a silver medal and the diploma of the Associa- 
tion. 

11. In May, of 1870, I transported 1,000 yearling trout 
to North Brookfield, 109 miles, three changes of cars, 
twelve hours' journey. They were taken in a tank and two 
barrels, with about eighty gallons of water, which was kept 
very cold, and well aerated. Forty-one died on the journey. 

12. On the 20th of May, the same year, one very hot 
day, I carried io,ooo- trout fry to Bristol, Conn., 138 miles, 
twelve hours, with three changes of cars. They were car- 
ried in six twelve-gallon cans, with about fifty gallons of 
water. Only seven died on the way. 

13. In the fall of 1870 I carried 20,000 trout spawn, 
just taken, in a pail of water, seven miles in a wagon, with- 
out loss. 

14. In the spring of 1871 I sent 10,000 trout fry to Nor- 
way, Me., 120 miles by rail, 100 by boat, and 40 miles 
more by rail. The journey took twenty-eight and a half 
hours. They were carried in a tank, in forty to fifty gal- 
lons of water, and plenty of ice. There was a loss of 
about 50Q, many of which had been bruised by the ice. 

12 



266 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

15. In the same spring I took 500 yearlings and 12 
large trout, very fat, in the same tank, in forty gallons of 
water, to Webster, Mass., no miles, in thirteen hours, 
with three changes of cars. All seemed in first-rate con- 
dition, with the exception of half a dozen yearhngs, 
which appeared to have been bruised. Mem. : In travel- 
ling by rail with fish, it is better to have one large tank 
than several smaller ones, provided you do not carry over 
about fifty gallons of water. More than this makes it too 
heavy to be handled safely in the hurry of railway travel. 

16. On the 20th of November, 1871, 10,000 trout eggs 
were packed in sphagnum moss in a common wooden box 
about a foot square, at Charlestown, N. H. They went from 
Charlestown to Boston, 120 miles by rail, on the same day. 
They remained in Boston over night, and the next morn- 
ing were put on board the ocean steamer which sailed that 
day. 'They had a long passage of eighteen days to Liver- 
pool, and a considerable journey by rail afterwards from 
Liverpool to Keswick. At the end of the journey two 
thirds were found in good condition, although some 
hatched on the way and died, and the byssus generated 
by these, and by some of the eggs that were killed during 
the first part of the trip, made great havoc in places. 



APPENDIX III. 

ODDS AND ENDS. 

CONTAINING tables of spawn in various fishes ; the 
seasons when fish spawn ; the months when fish are 
in good condition ; of water plants suitable for fish ponds ; 
the months when it is illegal to catch trout in the various 
States ; also trout breeding outfit, tricks for managing 
domesticated fish, tricks for managing the enemies of 
fish, etc. 

Number of Spawn in Different Fish. 
Buck land's Table. ^ 



Species. 


Weight offish. 


Total number of eggs. 


Trout 


I lb. 


i,oo8 


Jack 


4^ lbs. 


42,840 


Perch 


^Ib. 


20,592 


Roach 


lib. 


480,480 


Smelt 


2 OZ. 


36,652 


Lumpfish 


2 lbs. 


116,640 


Brill 


4 lbs. 


239,775 


Sole 


I lb. 


134,466 


Herring 


^Ib. 


^ 19,840 


Mackerel 


I lb. 


86,120 


Turbot 


8 lbs. 


385,200 


Cod 


20 lbs. 


4,872,000 



* Buckland's Fish Hatching, p. 13. 



268 



DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



Atkins's Table.* 



Species. 


Weight offish. 


Number of eggs 


Yellow Perch 


Z\oz. 


9.943 


River Smelt 


2 OZ. 


25,141 


Fresh-water Smelt 


10 OZ. 


80,000 


Whitefish ( Coregonus) 


2 lbs. 


25,076 


Schoodic Salmon (average) h lb. 


about 600 



Sebago Salmon (full count) 2 lbs. 10 oz. 2,368 

Number of Spawn in other Fish 7iot mentioned in the above 

Tables. 



Species. 
Herring 
Flounder 
Mullet 
Tench 
Bream 
Carp 
Sturgeon 
Pike 



Weight of fish. 

5t oz. 



66 lbs. 
200 lbs. 



Number of eggs. 
265,650 
i,ooo,*boo 
13,000,000 

383,250 
137,800 
342,140 

7,000,000 
272,160 



The following table gives the number of salmon eggs 
taken at the writer's establishment at Mirimichi in 1868. 
The fish averaged in weight about nine pounds, and were 
found to yield, like salmon everywhere else, a very uniform 
average of 1,000 eggs to the pound, when all the eggs were 
saved. 

80,000 eggs from 8 salmon. 

(( r << 

" 2 



October 15, 


1868, 


80,000 


" 16, 




55,000 


" 17, 




81,500 


" 20, 




8,000 


" 21, 




53.000 


" 23, 




5,000 


" 24, 




18,000 



" partly spawned. 



* Maine Fisheries, Report, 1869, p. 24. 



APPENDIX III. 269 

October 26, 1868, 21,000 eggs from 4 salmon.* 
" 29, " 10,600 " " 2 " 

The following table is a portion of Seth Green's report 
to the New York Commissioner of Fisheries of the shad 
spawning on the Hudson in 1870, showing the number of 
spawn in shad. 

Extracts fro?n Report of Shad Fisheries in the Hudson 
in the State of New York, iS/o.f 

May 26, caught 20 shad at night, 2 ripe fish, 70,000 spawn. 

" 27, caught 12 shad, i ripe fish, took 40,000 spawn. 

" 30, fished at night, got 23 shad, 9 ripe fish, 260,000 spawn. 

" 31, caught 74 shad, 8 ripe fish, took 210,000 spawn. 
June I, caught 35 shad, 4 ripe fish, took 100,000 spawn. 

" 2, caught 108 shad, 6 ripe fish, took 150,000 spawn. 

" 3, caught 90 shad, 12 ripe fish, took 250,000 spawn. 

" 4, caught 133 shad, 7 ripe fish, look 165,000 spawn. 

" II, caught 86 shad, 7 ripe fish, took 165,000 spawn. 

" 12, caught 70 shad, 11 ripe fish, took 240,000 spawn. 

" 13, caught 39 shad, 6 ripe fish, took 120,000 spawn. 

" 14, caught 32 shad, 2 ripe fish, took 55,000 spawn. 

# 

The following is the record of the trout spawning during 
the month of October, 1870, of one pond at the Cold Spring 
Trout Ponds. The trout averaged about half a pound in 
weight. 

Number of eggs. Number offish. 

October 12 1,000 2 

" 15 600 I 

" 18 2,400 3 

" 19 2,400 4 

* It should be observed that the salmon in the river finished 
spawning by the 24th of October, and that the eggs taken after 
that time were from the fish captured in the artificial ponds. 

t New York Citizen, October 15, 1870. 



2/0 



DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



October 20 
21 

22 

23 

24 

25 
26 
27 
28 
29 

30 
31 



Number of eggs. 


Number offish 


2,500 


3 


2,500 


4 


1,800 


3 


1,800 


3 


1,200 


3 


2,300 


4 


4,150 


8 


4,600 


ID 


5>400 


II 


2,200 


4 


4,200 


10 


7,400 


13 



The following table shows the time of spawning in the 
latitude of Northern New England of some of our more 
common American migratory and fresh-water fishes. 

Migratory Fishes. 

Smelt {Osmerus viridescens) April. 

Shad {Alosa presfabilis) May and June. 

Alewite {Alosa tyramuis) May and June. 

Menhaden {Alosa AIenhade?i) May and June. 
Striped Bass {Rocais lineatiis, Gill, 

Labj'ax ItJieattcs, Cnw.) July. 

Salmon {Salmo salar) October. 

Fresh-water Fishes. 

Perch Pike {Lucioperca) Last of April. 

Pickerel {Esox retiadatus) Last of April and first of May. 

Yellow Perch {Perca flaviscens) April and May. 

White Perch {Merone americand) June. 

Roach {Pomotis appendix) May. 

Sunfish {Pomotis vulgaris^ Cuv.) May. 

Sucker {Catostonms^ May. 

Rock Bass {Ceiitrarchus (^neiis) May. 

Bottom Pike (variety oi Lucioperca) May. 



APPENDIX III. 271 

Mullet (Caiostomus) June. 

Black Bass ( Grystes fasciatus) , June. 

Hornpout, Catfish {Pimelodus) September. 
Trout in ordinary brooks {Salmo 

foiitmalis) October and November. 

Blue-back Trout {Salmo oquossa) October. 

Schoodic Trout [Salmo sp.) November. 

Sebago Salmon [Salmo sp.) Last of Oct. and first of Nov. 

Lake Trout, Togue [Salmo tomd) Last of Oct. and first of Nov. 

Whitefish ( Coregojtus albus) ' November. 
Trout in spring water [Salmo 

fontinalis) Nov., Dec, Jan., Feb. 

Table of M. Coste. ^ 

PERIODS OF SPAWNING OF CERTAIN KINDS OF (eUROPEAn) FISH WHICH 
REPRODUCE IN FRESH WATER. 

Name of the species. Time of spawning. 

Salmon [Salmo salar) From November to February. 

Salmon Huch [S. hucho) April and May. 

Trout [S.fario) From October to February. 
Common Ombre [S. thymallus) April and May. 

Ombre Chevalier [S. iimbla) February, March, and April. 

Lavaret ( S. Waritnarmt) August, September, and Oct. 

Fera [Coregomcs fera) January and February. 

Shad [Clupea alosa) March, April, and May. 

Pike [Esox hicins) February, March, and April. 

Carp ( Cyprinus carpio) From May to September. 

Bream [C. bremd) End of April and May. 

Gibele { C. gibelio) May, June, and July. 

Tench [C. tinea) June and July. 

Perch [Pe7'ca fliimatilis) March, April, and May. 

Note. — The periods indicated in this table, varying according 
to places and climates, must not be considered as fixed, but as 
terms considering which it is possible to guess pretty nearly the 
times at which the eggs of the different species will be likely to 
hatch by artificial means. 



2/2 domesticated trout. 

Times when it is Illegal to take Trout in some 
OF THE States. 

Maine : October, November, December, January. 

New Hampshire : September, October, November. 

Vermont : September 15th to 30th, October, November. 

Massachusetts : September 20th to 30th, October, November, 
December, January, February, March ist to 20th. 

Rhode Island : July, August, September, October, November. 

Connecticut : September, October, November, December, Janu- 
ary, February, March. 

New York : October, November, December, January, February. 

New Jersey : September, October, November, December, Janu- 
ary, February. 

Pennsylvania : August, September, October, November, Decem- 
ber, January, February, March. 

California : January, February, March, April, May. 

The Mirimichi and Missisquoi Rivers. 

There are two rivers in the vicinity of New England so 
prolific in fish that they should be known to every one who 
is interested in fishes as they swim, and who enjoys study- 
ing them and their habits. 

These two rivers are the Missisquoi and the Mirimichi. 
The first produces chiefly warm-water fishes ; the second, 
migratory fishes of the best sort, and each is a marvel of 
its kind. The fish, at the right season, fairly swarm in both 
of these rivers. 

To illustrate the vast quantities offish in the Mirimichi, 
it is only necessary to say that within five years one haul 
of the net drew out 10,600 striped bass* at North Esk. 
Smelts were so plenty, previous to 1868, that they were liter- 
ally scooped up out of the water by barrels full, and used 
to manure the ground. Salmon sold for 60 cents apiece, 

* At Fulton Market prices, this one haul would bring ten thou- 
sand dollars. 



APPENDIX III. 273 

and trout were so plenty that they had no sale at all.* 
Very fine eels were killed by the barrel full by rapping 
them on the head with a stick as they came up the small 
brooks by night. 

The writer, in connection with Mr. Joseph Goodfellow 
of Mirimichi, shipped to Boston and New York, during 
the three months, January, February, and March, 1869, 
30,490 pounds of striped bass, frozen ; 46,946 pounds of 
smelts, frozen ; 8,908 pounds of sea trout, frozen. 

Previous to our starting this work, these enormous sup- 
plies of fish were of no value to the inhabitants. Since 
then a lucrative trade in these fish has been continued. 

We paid at first, in 1868, 3^ cents per pound for striped 
bass, 2^ cents per pound for smelts, 3^ cents per pound 
for trout. The prices have risen very much since the 
trade was opened, and make these fisheries a considerable 
source of revenue to the Mirimichi people. 

The Mirimichi River rises near the head-waters of the 
St. John, and flows northeasterly into the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence. To go to the Mirimichi River from Boston, 
you take a steamer to St. John, 300 miles, the cars from 
St. John to Shediac, 100 miles, and steamer from Shediac 
to New Castle, Mirimichi, 100 miles more. 

The most valuable fish caught in the Mirimichi are 
Salmon {Salmo salaj^) ; Striped Bass {Labrax lineatus) ; 
Sea Trout {Sahno triitta) ; Brook Trout {Sabno fontiiia- 
lis) ; Smelt {Osmerus viridescens) ; Sturgeon {Acipenser) ; 
Eel {Angnilla). 

The Missisquoi River, though not so rich in fish as the 

* The writer saw repeatedly a school of about two hundred 
large trout under a bridge where the most travelled highway 
crossed a small brook emptying into the Mirimichi. These trout 
summered here. No one thought them worth molesting, and 
they consequently lost their shyness, so as not to be at all afraid 
of the teams and persons passing. 

12* R 



274 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Mirimichi, is yet deserving of acquaintance from the gen- 
eral variety and abundance of its inhabitants. This river, 
which is in the northern part of Vermont, empties into 
Lake Champlain at Missisquoi Bay, very near the Canada 
hne. You can go directly from Boston via Fitchburg, 
Cheshire, and Vermont Central Railroads, leaving the 
cars at the Swanton Station, distance 288 miles. The 
chief fisheries are between Swanton Village and the Lake. 
The fishing is done in the spring of the year, with sweep 
seines, as soon as the ice goes out. 

The fish caught in the Missisquoi River and Bay are, 
Red-fin Mullet {Catostomiis) ; White-tail Mullet {Cato- 
sto7nics) ; Glass-eyed Pike, Perch Pike {Luciopercd) ; Lake 
Champlain Shad, Whitefish {Coregonus albus) ; Sheep- 
head, Drumfish {Amblodoii) ; Mascalonge, gill -cover 
bare (^Esox) ; Pickerel, gill-cover scaled {Esox) ; Bottom 
Pike (^Luciopercd) ; Black Bass {Grystes fasciatits) ; Os- 
wego Bass {Coi'cgoiius otsego) ; Mud Fish, Fresh Water 
Lusk {Lota) ; Ling* {Lota) ; Sturgeon {Acipenscr) ; Shin- 
er {Lc7icisciis amej'icanns) ; Bullhead, Catfish {Pinielo- 
dtis) ; Rock Bass {Centrarchus cctieiis) ; Sunfish {Po?no- 
tis vulgaris) ; Sucker {Catostoimis) ; Yellow Perch {Perca 
Jlavescens) ', Eelf {Anguilld) \ Salmon, fifty years ago 
{Salvio salar). 

With the exception of the Trout, Salmon, and White- 
fish, all these fish spawn in the spring and summer. 

The following list contains the names of some water 
plants suitable for trout ponds and nurseries : — 

Arrowhead {Sagittaria sagittifolid) ; Arrowhead (6"^;- 
gittaj'ia acutifolia) ; Water-cress {Nastiirtiicm officinale) ; 
Water-cress {Nasturtitun hispiduin) ; Winter-cress {Bar- 
barea vulgaris) ; Yellow-eyed Water Grass {Schollera 

* This fish is thought by the fishermen to be the parent of 
the eel. 
t Is the eel a hybrid ? No eggs or young are ever found in eels. 



APPENDIX III. 275 

grmnined) ; Water-lobelia (^Lobelia dortmannd) ; Water- 
milfoil (^Myriophyllufn verticillatiim) ; Water-milfoil (JMy- 
riophyllurn ambigic2C7ii) ; Water-weed {A7iacharis cana' 
densis) ; Water-lily, white {Nyi7tphea odor^atd) ; Water-lily, 
yellow (^Nuphar advend) ; Water-lily, small yellow (^Nu- 
phar pumild) ; Northern Calla {Calla palust7'is) ; Float- 
ing Bur-reed {Spa}'ga7iiu77i nata7is) ; Pond-weed {Pofa- 
77togeto7i 7iata7ts) ; Pond-weed {^Pota77togeto7i setacetwi) ; 
Sweet-flag (Acorus cala77ins) ; Starwort, broad-leaved {Cal- 
letriche ver7id) ; Starwort, narrow-leaved {Calletriche au^ 
tii77i7ialis) ; Horn wort {Ceratophylhwt de77iersii77i) ; Tape- 
grass ( Vallis7ieria a77ierica7td) ; Common Rush {Jniicus) ; 
Club Rush {Sdrptis) ; River-weed or Thread-foot {Podos- 
te77ion ceratophylhi77i) , Duck Meat {Le77t7ia 77ii7ior) ; Duck 
meat {Le77t7ia gibbd) ; Sphagnum Moss {Sphag7i 21771). 

List of the most necessary and convenient articles that 
are used about a trout-breeding establishment : — 

Meat-cutter and stand. Grater for preparing meat for 
young fry. Tin boxes for sending spawn. Water pails. 
Cans for carrying young fry. Small fine nets for catching 
young fish. Landing-net for large fish. Small sweep - 
seine. Flannel for filters. Fine copper-wire netting. 
Coarse galvanized iron-wire netting. Shears for cutting 
wire netting. Brush for cleaning screens. Sponge. 
Broom. Small shovel for moving gravel in troughs. 
A good meat-knife. Spouts for temporary use. Portable 
trap-boxes for temporary use. Large boxes for holding 
gravel. Traps for muskrats, minks, and kingfishers. 
Homoeopathic bottles for specimens of embryos, etc Al- 
cohol for preserving specimens. Feathers and nippers for 
picking over eggs. Gun. Common agricultural tools, as 
shovel, etc. Common carpenters' tools, as hammer, saw, 
etc. Thermometer. Microscope. 

To be used at the spawning beds : — 

Large tubs. Three large pails. Landing net. Impreg- 
nating pans. Timepiece. Thermometer. Note-book. 



2/6 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Tricks with Trout. 

If you want to make the colors of trout deep and dark, 
grow them over a black, muddy bottom, well shaded. If 
you want to cultivate hght and dehcate tints, grow the 
trout on a light, open, gravelly bed. 

If you want to have trout short and deep, and, to use an 
expressive Americanism, " chunky,"* grow them in a deep, 
still pond. If you want to have them long and slim, grow 
them in a shallow, swift current. 

If you want to have the trout in your ponds come to 
spawn any particular day, turn on a large, swiftly running 
stream, and they will come up. If you wish to retard 
their spawnmg for a day, let a small slow stream over them, 
and they will wait. 

If there is a fall of water where trout run wild, set a 
common bushel basket behind the fall in a perpendicular 
line with the top of the dam. The trout will spring up 
the fall in the line of the current in attempting its passage ; 
but, if not successful, will fall back in the line of gravita- 
tion and be caught in the basket. If you wish to trap 
trout from below into an enclosure above, on a brook, 
screen it at the desired place, and arrange a pendent gate 
or door of wire netting in the screen, as in a mouse-trap, 
so that they can go through, but cannot come back. This 
will work quite successfully in the spawning season, when 
the trout's instinct to go up stream is very strong. 

If you wish to take trout out singly from a pond without 
hurting them, bait a line (without a hook) with an inch- 
square piece of red flannel. The trout will swallow it just 
far enough to allow himself to be pulled out on the bank, 
but not far enough to hurt him. 

If you want trout to frequent a particular place in your 
pond, feed them there regularly. If you want them to re- 

* Also provincial in England, I believe. 



APPENDIX III. 277 

treat to any particular place in your pond, feed them regu- 
larly, excavate a hole there, and darken the bottom, placing 
light gravel throughout the rest of the pond. They will 
always go there when disturbed, unless too tame or expect- 
ing feed. 

If you are carrying trout in a barrel or tank, and want 
to make them rise from the bottom, give the barrel a knock 
or a blow near the bottom. The trout will instantly rise. 
If you want to make them sink to the bottom of the tank, 
shake a white handkerchief over them. 

After a trout appears perfectly dead from suffocation 
(want of air), you can, if he has not been left too long in 
this condition, bring him back to life by vigorously aerat- 
ing the water 

Commence tickling a trout underneath with your hand, 
and in a little while, if you are gentle and patient, you 
will so mesmerize him that you can raise him out of the 
water, on the open palm of your hand, without his strug- 
gling. 

If you want to attract trout to your bait, use the oil of 
rhodum, or anise, or cumin. The smell of salmon roe 
also attracts them It is said that the scent of petroleum 
and tar is enticing to them. Walton recommended the 
use of petroleum. 

If you want to net out trout in the night, arrange a lan- 
tern so that you can sink it in the water. Once in the 
water the fish will gather around it, and will become so 
bewildered that you can net them out without difficulty, 
whether wild or tame. 

If you want to prevent a lot of trout from being hooked 
out in the night by poachers, feed them well towards even- 
ing, and then catch out two or three with a small hook, 
and, after a moment or two, throw them back. They will 
create a panic amongst the rest, so that there will be no 
more fishing that night with a hook. 



2/8 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

If you want to see whether trout notice sounds, creep up 
cautiously, with a bell and revolver, to where you can see 
them without their seeing you, then screajn with all your 
might, ring the bell, and fire the pistol. If they do not see 
any of your motions, they will not move a fin. 

Tricks with Trout Eggs, other Fish, Muskrats, 

ETC., ETC. 

If you want to have trout eggs hatch in the summer, 
keep them on ice for six months. If you want to hatch 
them in a month, keep a stream of warmish water running 
over them. This you can do by bedding the supply-pipe 
in a bank of fresh horse-manure. Make the pipe small, 
and give it several turns in the bank. 

If you want to see a trout-egg hatch, take one that is 
just ready to break the shell and put it in warm water, say 
at 70°, the warmth will often stimulate the embryo into 
breaking the shell. 

If you want to drive alevins from a particular corner 
where they have collected, pour a few cups of water over 
the spot, which will drive them away, then fill in with whit- 
ish gravel, which will keep them away to some extent. 

If a trout, not over two and a half inches long, strikes 
at a black spider in the water, the spider will strike back 
at him, and if he takes a good aim will kill the trout in- 
stantaneously. The httle fellow will not go twelve inches 
before he turns over on his back and drops down dead. 

If you throw small balls, made of the fisher's berry 
{Cocciihis mdinis)^ into the water, the fish will eat it, be- 
come poisoned, and rise to the surface dead. 

If you have occasion to carry live bullheads * any dis- 

* The bullhead [Pimelodus) is very tenacious of life. Fisher- 
men often, by a half-dissecting and half-flaying process, take the 
meat out of a bullhead's body for their chowder, leaving only 
the head, skin, and fins. This more than eviscerated shell of a 



APPENDIX III. 279 

tance, you can do so by packing them in wet moss {Sphag- 
mini). They will live forty-eight hours in it. Or, if it is 
in the winter, you can freeze them up and carry them, if 
you do not freeze them so stiff but that you can bend 
them easily. This you can also do with pickerel and other 
fish. 

When muskrats begin to come up your brook in the 
fall, set your traps in the middle of the stream and place 
obstructions (stakes or anything) on each side of the trap, 
as far as the bank. The rats will go into the trap, rather 
than go around or over the obstruction. If the muskrats 
have succeeded in getting up into your ponds, sink a barrel 
into the pond, fill it a little less than half full of water, and 
put a sweet apple in it. The rats will get into it after the 
apple, and cannot get out. 

If minks have got into your ponds, push one end of a 
plank into the water, on the north bank of the pond, and 
let it rest so, obhquely, on the bank, facing the south. Put 
your trap on the plank, so that the mink must step into it 
if he comes up on the plank. He will presently cHmb up 
the plank to sun himself, and will be caught. 

If kingfishers or fish hawks molest your trout, erect a 
pole on the bank, and fasten a common steel trap on the 
top of it. The birds will surely light on the pole to watch 
their prey, and will almost always be caught. If large 
herons visit the ponds, place a number of steel traps in 
any shallow part of the pond where their tracks are seen. 
The heron's feet are so large that he will not be long step- 
ping into one of the traps. The traps should be firmly 
fastened, of course. 

If you wish to know whether poachers visit the ponds 

creature will immediately gain his equilibrium in the water, and 
endeavor to move off with as natural a motion of the fins as if 
nothmg had happened. This sickening sight I have often seen 
at the Missisquof River. 



280 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

at night, tie cords across the paths, or, if the ground is 
suitable, strew a layer of fine sand around the ponds. 
The breaking of the cords or footprints on the sand will 
reveal the presence of the nocturnal visitors. 

Freezing Fish.* 

From the Scientific American, January, 1854. 

I have witnessed repeatedly, the two winters I have been 
here, the resuscitation of frozen trout, pickerel, and perch, 
on thawing them out in fresh running water, even after 
they had been carried for miles. 

It is only under certain circumstances, however, that 
they will revive. If caught on a day when it is cloudy and 
freezing hard, and if not hurt with the hook, and they 
freeze immediately on being thrown on the ice, they will 
revive on being thawed out. But if allowed to toss about 
in the sun, on a clear day, and probably not freeze for an 
hour or two after they are caught, then they will neVer 
revive. 

It is so common a thing that I have only to go back to 
the last day I was fishing, for an example of it. I went 
down to Lake Sandford with one of our men, on the 29th 
ultimo, and at night we carried home in our packs eleven 
pickerel, all frozen hard, and bent and curved just as they 
happened to twist themselves before freezing. We put 
them into a trough of running spring water, and when 
thawed out found six of them alive. The others had prob- 
ably been caught in the warmest part of the day, and died 
before they froze. The same day fifteen fine brook trout 
were brought from Lake Andrew, five miles distant, in a 
pack, and on being thawed out several of them revived, 
though I did not notice how many. They are, however, a 
much more delicate fish than the pickerel or perch, and 
more easily hurt and killed than either of them. 

* Compare Embryologie des Salmones^ C. Vogt, p. 17. 



APPENDIX III. 281 

On the afternoon of the 24th ultimo I had fished faith- 
fully for pickerel till sundown, without even getting an en- 
couraging nibble ; tired at last of that fun, I took out a 
small hook and line, and soon had twenty-five perch ; they 
froze almost instantly ; I strung them on a crotched twig, 
carried them so for two miles, and, when thawed out, found 
fourteen of them ahve, the rest having been hurt either by 
the hook or the twig. 

The pond behind the village, formed by the damming 
of the river, is full of young pickerel ; they are all from 
three fish put in there last winter, one male and two fe- 
males. All of them were brought from Lake Sandford 
frozen, and were put into the pond after they had been 
thawed out in a trough. The male I caught ; it lay on 
the ice, frozen, for three hours, and then, not finding a 
mate for him, I ran a stick through his gills, and dragged 
him home on the snow, two miles, threw him into the 
trough, and thought no more of him till next morning, 
when I found him alive, and seemingly enjoying himself as 
well as his narrow limits would permit. I took pity on the 
poor fellow, carried him down to the pond, and he went 
off like a dart. 

These are but a few instances of what occurs almost 
every day the winter through. The fact of their resuscita- 
tion after being frozen, as I have described, is known to 
every one here who is in the habit of fishing in winter, and 
cannot escape being noticed, as the weather is cold enough 
almost all the time to freeze them, and they have to be 
thawed out before they can be cleaned. 

I have heard fishermen say that they have taken trout 
when frozen, and whittled the fins and tail off, and, on 
being thawed, found them alive ; but I have never tried 
this or any other experiment with them, and would not 
vouch for the truth of it. 



282 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

First Authentic Account of Fly-Fishing. 

Extract from ^Elian's History of Animals, XI. i, A. D. 230. 

I have heard this account of a mode of fishing in Mace- 
donia. In a river called Astr^us, which flows between 
Beraea and Thessalonica, are found fishes marked with va- 
rious colors (spotted trout). These feed upon flies that 
play upon the water, which are unlike any other flies, — dif- 
fering from bees, wasps, or hornets, but of a distinct spe- 
cies. They have the boldness of other flies, are about the 
size of hornets, of the color of wasps, and make a bum- 
bling noise like bees. These they call "iKKovpov. These, 
as they sport on the surface, the fish see ; and, moving 
slyly through the water till they get under the insect, leap 
upon it as a wolf upon a sheep in a flock, or an eagle upon 
one of a flock of geese, and, seizing their prey, sink again 
into the deep water. This the fishermen observed, but 
could not use them for bait, as, when caught in the hand, 
the flies lost their color and their wings ; for which cause 
they hated them (the fishes glutting themselves upon the 
bait which the angler knew not how to use). But, in pro- 
cess of time, as their angling science advanced, they learned 
to outwit the fish by their ingenuity. They first wrapped 
around their hook some Phoenician (purple) wool, and then 
tied on two feathers, or the wattles of a cock's neck, of a 
wax color. This they threw with a pole or reed, an opyvia, 
four cubits long (there must be a mistake here, for, at the 
utmost, that would not be more than seven or eight feet), 
and a line of the same length. These cunning artifices 
they threw on the water, and the fish, attracted by the ap- 
pearance of the pretty insect they feed upon, seized the 
bait, and were caught. 



APPENDIX III. 283 



Ancient Fish Story.* 

The farthest stretch of profane writers into the history 
of fishing is the mention made by Diodorus Siculus (Lib. 

I. 52) of Moeris, the immediate predecessor of Sesostris 
(see Larcher, Chron. d'Herodote, and Bahr on Herodotus, 

II. 100), which, according to ChampolHon Figeac, would 
put him about B.C. 1500 (perhaps a hundred years too 
soon). This Moeris, the historian says, constructed the 
famous artificial lake called by his name, which was eighty 
stadia long and rpiizkeOpov (say four hundred feet) broad, 
and it cost fifty talents to open and shut the flood-gates. 
In the middle he erected two sepulchral pyramids, one for 
himself and the other for his wife, with marble statues of 
them both on a throne. But it was also a vast fish-pond, 
having in it twenty-two different kinds of fish, which in- 
creased so fast that the most extensive preparations for 
salting them were not sufficient for the purpose. The 
revenue derived from the fishing he assigned to his wife, 
who had thus, out of that source, a talent ($ 10,000) a day 
for pin money. The passage is curious, as showing the 
importance of fish as an article of food. 

A Dissertation on Shad. 

From the Belfast Journal. 

The shad was named for old Shad-rach, whom Nebu- 
chad-nezzar considered a scaly chap, till after he passed 
through his fiery furnace, when he was found to be a man 
of much backbone, and in this respect the shad resembles 
him in great quantities. Shad are nature's pin-cushions 
for bones. They are built of the refuse stuff that was left 
after all the rest of the fish were concocted. The interior 

* Bibliographical preface to Wiley and Putnam's edition of 
Complete Angler, p. viii. 



284 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

of a shad looks like a fine-tooth comb or a wool-card, and 
the best way to get the meat out is to use a toothpick. A 
little later in the season and the shad will make their ap- 
pearance. When they come, they come a good deal ; there 
is many of him ; he is multitudinous. We are not read 
up as to where the shad lives before he comes this way, 
but he boards where they set a poor table. When he first 
puts in an appearance, he is extremely emaciated. He is 
so thin that his skin don't fit him, hence the phrase " thin 
as a shad." You can't get anything thinner than a spring 
shad, unless you take a couple of them, when, of course, 
they will be twice as thin. They look much like a porgie, 
— about twice as much, but they are not so high-scented. 
Shad fishing is a lucrative business. If the fisherman has 
good luck, they will net him considerable, or he will net 
them considerable, we are doubtful which. They are fast. 
They don't stop to loaf any more than a thoroughbred pill, 
but just keep right on about their business. 

A person to like shad wants to eat them often, at near 
intervals, once every twenty-four hours for eleven or nine- 
teen weeks. The champion place for getting up an appe- 
tite for shad is at a Brooklyn boarding-house. The thing 
there is reduced to a science. As soon as shad becomes 
cheap and plenty, the landlady announces at the breakfast- 
table that she will have shad for dinner. The boarder 
immediately goes to his room and puts on the poorest shirt 
he has, and when he comes to dinner he has provided him- 
self with a magnifying glass, which makes the bones look 
larger, a small basket to put the bones in, a toothpick, and 
a pair of tweezers. When one eats shad he wants to eat 
it ; he don't want to talk or discuss the state of affairs in 
France, as he will get so full of the bony parts that he will 
sigh for a little more Bourbon. When he swallows a bone, 
all he has to do is to take his tweezers and pull it out ; 
after one learns this art it is simple and even graceful. It 



APPENDIX III. 285 

is calculated that during the shad season a good shad-eater 
will get from ten to fifteen bushels of bones from what shad 
he eats. After the last shad is destroyed, he tears off his 
shirt, sandpapers off the ends of the bones which are stick- 
ing out through his skin, dons clean linen, and is himself 
again. If we have in our remarks said aught that looks 
as though we had wandered from the truth, we are willing 
to vouch for correctness by furnishing all sceptics with a 
written affidavit 



APPENDIX IV. 

PATENT CARBONIZED HATCHING TROUGHS. 

WHEN the first efforts at trout breeding were made 
in this country, wooden troughs were used for hatch- 
ing the eggs. It was soon found that the fungus which 
grew on wood when under water was exceedingly destruc- 
tive to the eggs. Indeed, of all the dangers to which the 
eggs were exposed, fungus proved to be the worst. It de- 
stroyed them by thousands and hundreds of thousands, and 
those which it did not actually kill it rendered worthless by 
exhausting their vitality. It therefore became indispensa- 
ble to abandon the use of wood for hatching trout eggs. 
The great want was, then, to find something which, by 
being inexpensive, accessible, and at the same time safe 
from fungus, would supply the place of the old wooden 
troughs. The emergency brought out various materials, — 
soapstone, slate, pottery, glass, metallic screens and pans, 
wood lined with glass, and other things, all of which were 
tried and found to be either inadequate or expensive, and 
the want of a cheap and safe material was still unsup- 
plied. 

It was at this time, after many useless experiments, and 
the loss of many thousands of eggs, that the writer hit 
upon charred or carbonized wood. This was tried, and 
found to answer the purpose beyond all expectations. 
Nothing could be conceived more perfect in its adaptabil- 
ity. The problem was solved. In carbonized wood was 
found an inexpensive, accessible, and perfectly effective 
material for hatching fish eggs, without danger from fun- 



APPENDIX IV. 287 

gus. It is also one of the most durable and easily handled 
things in the world. And this is not all. It has invari- 
ably been my experience that in any instance where the 
carbonized hatching troughs have been used, not only have 
the eggs been free from fungus, and have therefore hatched 
better, but the young fry have lived better; and the con- 
trast between the effect of the charred wood and the raw 
material in this respect has been very marked indeed. 
While the young fish, hatched in the old wooden troughs, 
seemed to drop down dead from no assignable cause, the 
fry hatched in the charred troughs showed a wonderful 
tenacity of life, that became more and more surprising 
every day. I have hatched over a million eggs in these 
troughs, and speak from experience, and my experience 
has been, without an exception, to confirm the belief that 
the fry hatched in this material do not die as they did 
under the old method. It is a fact that can be confirmed 
by my assistants, that in some of the charcoal troughs last 
year less than one-tenth per cent were lost by death in the 
first three months, with the exception of deformed ones. 
This year it has been the same ; and if any one will take 
the pains to visit my hatching house, I will show him 
charred troughs, which the water has run through for six 
months or more, that are as clean from fungus as when 
the water was turned on in the fall, and also troughs of 
young fry, where death is a rare occurrence. 

The exclusive right to use charcoal and charred wood 
for hatching fish eggs has been secured to the writer in 
the United States by letters patent ; but even with the 
royalty paid for the right to use charred wood it is still 
the cheapest thing that can be found, as well as the best. 
The reader can see the saving in expense in the use of 
charcoal troughs over glass grilles by looking at the fol- 
lowing figures : — 



288 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Glass grilles for hatching 100,000 eggs cost, say 80 at 

^3.50 apiece . $280 

Carbonized troughs for hatching 100,000 eggs cost for 
Lumber and labor . . . . . • $ 15 
Right to use 25 

Total cost 40 

Balance in favor of charcoal troughs . . . , $ 240 

This is an important saving of money ; but there is a 
still greater saving in the lives of the young fish after they 
are hatched. 

These considerations lead me to think that for business 
the carbonized troughs stand the test better than anything 
in use. I will only add that the work of preparing the 
carbonized Kning to the trough is very trifling, and can be 
done in a few moments and at an insignificant expense. 



APPENDIX V. , 

BRIEF SKETCH OF OPERATIONS AT THE COLD 
SPRING TROUT PONDS. 

THIS establishment was the first of its kind undertaken 
in New England for making a business of fish breed- 
ing. It is located in Charlestown, N. H., a town on the 
Connecticut River, about fifty miles by rail above the 
Massachusetts line. The water supply consists of two 
streams, both fed by springs, and running about 10,000 
gallons an hour in dry weather. The hatching house is 
built at the source of one of these streams, and has a sup- 
ply of 2,000 gallons an hour, at 47° Fahrenheit. The 
breeding ponds are built at the junction of the two streams, 
and receive, when required, all the water from both. 

1866. 

The Cold Spring Trout Ponds commenced operations in 
the summer of 1866, when two or three small ponds were 
built, and a hatching building, 8 feet by 16, was erected. 
This building hatched 15,000 trout the following winter. 

1867. 

My whole attention was given the next year (1867) to 
growing the young fry^ it being my conviction that every- 
thing now depended upon successful operations in this par- 
ticular department. I felt certain that here was the weak 
point in trout raising. Trout had been hatched by the 
hundred thousand. Trout enough had come into being 
by artificial means to fill the market to overflowing, if they 
13 s 



290 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

had grown up. But where were they? Domestic trout 
ought to have been as plenty as codfish ; instead of that, 
there were none to be had. 

I therefore made the growing of the young fish a severe 
and unremitting study the first year, and was rewarded 
with success ; not that I did not lose many young fry, for I 
lost a great many, but I raised some, and in most instances 
where they died I thought I saw a removable cause. I 
now believed that time and study would prevent the diffi- 
culties of the first year's growth, and proceeded to extend 
my operations. The original hatching house was enlarged 
into a building 16 feet by 24, and a large new hatch- 
ing house, 60 feet by 27, was put up, with 500 feet of 
hatching troughs. That fall over 100,000 trout eggs were 
laid down, beside 40,000 salmon eggs, which were sent by 
the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Commissioners 
to be hatched here for the Connecticut River. 

1868. 

The next spring (1868) the plan of the rearing box was 
completed, the object of which is to protect the young fish 
from accident, and from their natural enemies. It will not, 
of course, feed them, or keep them from dying of diseases, 
but it will save them from the two very prolific causes of 
loss just mentioned, namely, accidents and natural enemies. 
This spring, and during the winter, some of the salmon 
eggs and young fry were, with the consent of the Commis- 
sioners, sent to Professor Agassiz. They were the first 
live specimens of the American Sabno salar that the great 
naturalist had seen, and drawings were taken of them 
for his projected work on the Salmonidse of this conti- 
nent. 

During the same spring another pond was built, and a 
few black bass introduced from Lake Champlain. There 
were also 100,000 young bass hatched in some small arti- 



APPENDIX V. 291 

ficial ponds in New York State, which formed a branch of 
the Cold Spring Farm, It is a good evidence of the in- 
creased pubHc interest in fish culture that now there is an 
incessant demand for black bass, while in 1868 I had but 
07ie order for bass fry during the whole summer. In the 
fall of this year I built a large salmon-breeding estab- 
lishment, with extraordinary natural facilities, on the Miri- 
michi River, New Brunswick. Nearly half a million sal- 
mon eggs were taken here this year, one half of which 
went by agreement to the Canadian Department of Fish- 
eries, and the other half were taken to the hatching house 
at Charlestown. Various causes had reduced the num- 
bers, however, and each half was estimated at only 183,000 ; 
100,000 of these were sold to the Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire Commissioners for % 1,600, and sent to Messrs. 
Robinson & Hoyt, at Meredith Village, N. H., to be hatched 
by them for the Merrimack River. Other lots were sent to 
various parties, among others, the South Side Club, New 
York ; W. CHft, Poheganut Ponds, Conn. ; Colonel Theo- 
dore Lyman, for Massachusetts State Hatching House, 
and E. A. Brackett, Winchester, Mass. One lot was sent to 
England to Mr. Frank Buckland, British Commissioner of 
Fisheries, and was favorably noticed in the London Times. 

One salmon of this fall's take of eggs, now three years 
old, was kept till last winter (1872) at Charlestown, in the 
fresh water it was hatched in. It is a smolt, but very 
much dwarfed, and is the oldest tame salmon in America. 

One lot of yearling trout, hatched here in the year 1867, 
took a diploma at the Connecticut River Agricultural Fair. 
Another lot took a diploma at the New England Fair at 
New Haven. 

1869. 

In the spring of 1869 about 100 spring spawning fish 
were brought from the Missisquoi River to the Cold Spring 
Trout Ponds, consisting chiefly of black bass, glass-eyed 



292 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

pike, mullet, yellow perch, and one large Esox^ well known 
to visitors as the " big pickerel." These fish are quite 
large, and though of not much profit are a fine sight, and 
afford observers an opportunity of studying their ways. 
In the fall of this year, the trout, now two years old, which 
took diplomas at the last year's agricultural fairs, received 
a diploma and silver medal at Boston at the exhibition of 
the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association. In 
the same fall, carbonized or charred wood, for hatching 
trout eggs, was tried at the hatching house in Charlestown, 
and was found to answer its purpose perfectly. This was 
the year of the great freshet, which wrecked so many trout 
ponds. It fortunately did no harm at the Cold Spring 
Farm. 

1870. 

The next year, 1870, the demand for trout eggs and 
young trout had very much increased. Preparations to 
meet this demand were made at the Cold Spring Trout 
Ponds. The carbonized hatching troughs were introduced 
throughout in the hatching buildings, and 250,000 trout 
eggs were laid down in them. In the mean time a fine lot 
of yearlings had been brought through the last year. Sev- 
eral consignments of large trout had been sent to Fulton 
Market, New York, and one of the largest hotels in Bos- 
ton had been supplied through the summer. 

1871. 

The next spring, 1871, the demand for eggs and young 
fish was a quarter of a million more than the establishment 
could furnish. The large trout brought, in Fulton Market, 
in April, % 1.25 per pound. The right to use charcoal and 
carbonized wood for hatching fish was patented June 20, 
1871. 

Four new ponds were built this year, 1871, and lined 
with carbonized two-inch plank. A large number of year- 



APPENDIX V. 293 

lings were sold this year, the demand for this size being 
larger than ever before. In the fall of 187 1 nearly 300,000 
trout eggs were laid down in the hatching troughs. 

Ten thousand of them were sent to Europe. Most of 
them arrived safely, and have since hatched. Some of 
them are in Mr. Frank Buckland's Museum at South Ken- 
sington, England, and were noticed by him as follows, in 
Land and Water, published in London. 

" Salmon and Trout Breeding at South Kensington. — 
The breeding troughs at my Museum of Economic Fish 
Culture are now almost as full as they can be. The fol- 
lowing is a catalogue of the eggs and fry : Salvio fontina- 
lis^ or American Brook Trout, brought over by Mr. Par- 
naby of Troutdale Fishery, Keswick.* These are beautiful 
little fish, of about three quarters of an inch long. They 
havje almost absorbed their umbilical bag, and will shortly 
begin to feed. I propose to feed them on the roe of soles. 
These American fish are much more active, and, I was 
going to write, — it may be even so, — intelligent fish than 
our salmon or trout {Salmo /arid). Possibly they have 
imbibed some of the national American sharpness. I 
think I shall consult them on the Alabama question." 

The Cold Spring Trout Ponds received this fall the sole 
agency in the United States for the sale of the British fish 
hatched at the celebrated Keswick estabhshment, the lar- 
gest in England. The experiment of taking trout eggs by 
the Russian or dry method of impregnation was tried this 
season at the Cold Spring Farm with astonishing success, 
the yield of fish being 95 per cent of the eggs taken. 
This method will be hereafter adopted here altogether. 

* The original article in Land and Water, above quoted, 
states that the fish came from Mr. Wilmot's establishment in 
Canada. This is an error, as every Salmo fontinalis which Mr, 
Parnaby took to England came from my hatching house at the 
Cold Spring Trout Ponds. 



294 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

1872. 

In February, 1872, the trout and salmon from these 
ponds took a silver medal and a bronze medal at the exhi- 
bition of the New York State Poultry Society at Albany. 

The trout hatched out this year have done wonderfully 
well ; up to the present time (August), very few losses in- 
deed have occurred. 

Some of the young fry which hatched in England from 
the eggs sent over last fall are now in possession of Her 
Majesty Queen Victoria. The salmon hatched last year 
(yearlings) are looking finely, although much dwarfed. In 
June of this year, Mr. Parnaby, of Keswick, England, 
visited the Cold Spring Trout Ponds for the purpose of 
obtaining some black bass to carry across the Atlantic. 
A large quantity of these fish were furnished him, and 
were doing well, at last accounts, when the steamer con- 
veying them sailed from New York. 

The demand for trout and trout eggs has been good this 
year at the Gold Spring Farm, and two new plank ponds 
have been built. Other plans of improvement were con- 
templated, but the proprietor having been appointed 
Deputy Commissioner of the United States to conduct 
the salmon breeding on the Pacific Coast, has left them 
to be carried out by his agent in charge. 

A peculiar feature about this farm is that it hatches eggs 
at the halves for all the neighboring trout-raisers, they pre- 
ferring to have their eggs hatched so, to incurring the risk 
and labor of doing it themselves. 



APPENDIX VI. 

SALMON-BREEDING ESTABLISHMENT ON THE 
MIRIMICHL 

PREVIOUS to 1868 the few salmon eggs that had come 
into the United States to stock its depleted streams 
were obtained at random, and in quantities totally inad- 
equate to the requirements of the great American salmon 
rivers. It was evident that something must be done on a 
more extended scale to carry out the now rapidly forming 
purpose of restoring the salmon in those rivers ; and in 
the spring of 1868 the writer conceived the idea of organiz- 
ing a large salmon-breeding establishment on one of the 
New Brunswick rivers, all of which are famous for the vast 
quantities of salmon which they contain. 

The Mirimichi was chosen, on account of its accessi- 
bility and its capacity for supplying parent fish in abun- 
dance. On the farm of Mr. Joseph Goodfellow, eight miles 
above Newcastle, on the river, was found a very large 
even-flowing spring and a spring brook running within a 
few feet of it, and both within sixty rods of the river it- 
self A large hatching house, one hundred feet by twenty- 
seven, was built of three-inch deals, just below the spring. 
The house was provided with nearly an eighth of a mile 
of hatching troughs laid in rows parallel with its length. 
A pond, having an area of about an acre, was built below 
the house. This was connected with the river by a flume. 
The spring water and brook water were turned through 
the house, thence into the pond, and thence into the 
river. 



296 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Nothing could be more admirably suited to its purpose. 
One of the best rivers in the world to furnish the parent 
salmon, an inexhaustible supply of water, both brook and 
spring, to hatch the eggs in, a hatching house capable of 
turning out millions of young fry annually, and immediate 
communication with the river for letting the parent salmon 
in and out. The place was as near perfect in its adapta- 
tions as could be wished. As soon as the site was se- 
lected, and before any work was done, a plan of the whole 
undertaking was laid before the Hon. Peter Mitchell, the 
Canadian Minister of Marine and Fisheries. After some 
consultation, the plan was favorably received, and we were 
instructed by the minister to prepare a full statement in 
writing of our plan of operations, with a request for per- 
mission to take from the Mirimichi River the parent salmon 
required for our v/ork. 

This statement and petition having been prepared and 
submitted to the minister, he replied, upon reading it, 
" Go on with your work, gentlemen ; your wishes will be 
granted." The work of building the house and pond was 
prosecuted without delay, and in September, the writer 
being then in Boston, Mr. Goodfellow, acting on the oral 
authorization of the minister, began fishing in the, river 
with a stake-net for the parent salmon. The fishery war- 
dens, acting in accordance with their general instructions, 
though hastily, we think, immediately took up and confis- 
cated the large forty-fathom net which had been used, and 
released the captured salmon. As it was then the close 
season, and as the fishing wardens had received no in- 
structions from headquarters to make an exception in 
favor of our nets, they were certainly only doing their 
duty. On the other hand, as they knew, though not 
through an official source, that the undertaking had the 
sanction of the head of the Fisheries Department, and as 
the salmon were not to be killed, but only confined alive in 



APPENDIX VI. 297 

a pond close to the river, where they could be returned to 
it at any time, if it was found that they were wrongly 
captured, and especially as one half of all the young fry 
hatched were, according to agreement,* to go back to 

* Ottawa, September 2, i86S. 

Gentlemen : I am directed by the minister to state, that he 
has considered the proposal made by your letter of 20th ultimo, 
in continuance of a verbal proposition made to him when at 
Mirimichi, having in view the establishment of breeding-beds 
and ponds for the artificial production of salmon at North Esk, 
on the northwest branch of the river Mirimichi. 

The department cannot allow any bounty, such as you men- 
tion, nor attach any exclusive right to the enterprise in question, 
neither afford any guaranty whatever for the expense you may 
incur, but will extend to it such facilities as are warranted by the 
interest which the public may have in your success, and shall 
appear to be justified from time to time by the earnestness and 
good faith of your endeavors or the actual fruits of your opera- 
tions. 

At present it is deemed proper to specify in what terms the 
requisite authority can be conveyed to you. 

1. That at private cost you shall make and keep in efiicient 
repair suitable rearing and feeding ponds, and spawning beds, 
and a proper hatching house with troughs, and the other neces- 
sary appliances at a brook emptying into the northwest branch 
of the river Mirimichi, on the south bank thereof, on the prop- 
erty of Mr. Joseph Goodfellow, in the parish of North Esk, as 
named by you. 

2. That this establishment shall be built and maintained for 
the bona fide purpose of hatching and rearing salmon. 

3. That from the time of impregnation, and during the period 
of incubation, the salmon ova obtained for or deposited in this 
establishment shall be and be deemed the property of the 
crown, and one half of the young salmon so hatched and reared 
therein, or in connection therewith, shall be, and continue, the 
property of the crown, and shall be allowed to pass alive and 
healthy and well fed into, and remain in, the waters of the 

13* 



298 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

enrich the river, and all the salmon, when manipulated, 
were to be restored to it, this summary confiscation of the 
nets and release of the fish seemed to be hasty action, to 
say the least, on the part of the fishery wardens, who 

Mirimichi or its branches, when and after they shall obtain 
the sufficient and ordinary growth of salmon fry. And the other 
half shall, when hatched out, be your property, 

4. That you shall be entitled to obtain from this department 
permission to procure fish-spawn for the sole purpose of furnish- 
ing impregnated eggs for hatching in the said establishment, 
such permission to be accorded for the times, places, and means 
of so taking salmon fixed in writing by the inspector of fisheries 
for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and subject to uses only 
under the immediate surveillance of a fishery officer or fishing 
warden, who shall be empowered to stop all proceedings under 
the said written permit the moment he finds the liberty it allows 
subject to abuse or injurious to the salmon fisheries, or any of 
these conditions evaded or violated. 

5. The numbers and condition of salmon caught and manipu- 
lated, which are to be returned alive and uninjured to the stream 
with the dates of capture, manipulation, and release, together 
with the numbers of eggs obtained therefrom, and actually de- 
posited, and also the numbers vivified, and afterwards hatched, 
and the numbers of young fish let into the river, to be attested 
on oath, by one or more of the persons engaged in the estab- 
lishment. 

6. That any fishery officer or warden shall at any and all 
times have free access to the premises. 

7. That no eggs or fry shall be removed from the ponds, 
boxes, hatching-beds, or elsewhere, without the knowledge and 
consent of the local fishery officer, and the pardtion or releasing 
of young fish to fulfil the crown share shall be made in the pres- 
ence of and certified by a fishery officer authorized thereto. 

8. That until you have prepared the establishment to the sat- 
isfaction of the inspector of fisheries, no permit shall be delivered 
to you. 

9. Any violation or evasion of these conditions shall forthwith 



APPENDIX VI. 



299 



might, without injury, have left things in statu quo for 
a while, until the course of events decided whether the 
fishing was authorized or not. If the wardens were actincr 
under the direction of the Inspector of the Province, it 
makes the matter all the worse, for he at least ou^^ht to 
have had intelligence enough to abstain from such intem- 
perate haste. 

As soon as the first net was forcibly taken by the war- 
dens, Mr. Goodfellow, still relying on the authority con- 
veyed by the last conversation with the minister, staked 
down another net, and continued fishing. This was im- 
mediately taken up and confiscated like the last. When 
another net was put down and taken, then another and an- 
other. As fast as a net was put down it was taken up, 
and as fast as it was taken up another was put down,* 
and so it continued, each net going the way of its prede- 

forfeit the permit, and put an end to the privilege, besides ex- 
posing the parties to penalties provided by the laws. 

The foregoing laws it has been found advisable to stipulate for 
the security of the public and the satisfaction of the department ; 
but the minister expresses his confidence in the ability and 
energy of the parties who undertake this project, and he will 
view with lively expectation and assist to the utmost their bona 
fide exertions towards rendering it a practical success, at once 
remunerative to themselves and beneficial to the fisheries. 
I have the honor to be, gentlemen, 
Your obedient servant, 

W. F. WHITCHER, 
For the Hon. Minister of Marine and Fisheries. 

* To discontinue fishing would have been fatal to the under- 
taking. The spawning season was near, and the best runs of 
fish were over, and it was evident that unless the parent salmon 
were caught at once it would be too late. Subsequent facts con- 
firmed this view of the matter; for after the date (October 6) 
of our written permit from the inspector, we caught only twenty- 
eight salmon in all. 



300 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

cesser, until seven or eight nets had found their way to 
the contraband stores of the wardens. 

At length the written instructions of the Fisheries 
Department were received by Mr. Goodfellow, and not 
Ions: after I arrived at Mirimichi. The department in- 
structions made the fishing conditional upon a written 
permit from the inspector of the Provinces. On my arrival, 
the inspector was immediately telegraphed for. The com- 
munity was by this time worked up into a state of great 
excitement, and the inspector had heard only the warden's- 
side of the story. But upon seeing the works which had 
been constructed, and hearing a full account of the affair, 
and of what was contemplated, he fell in with the under- 
taking, and gave it his hearty support. He also gave a 
written permit, drawn up in the most liberal terms, for the 
taking of three hundred salmon from the river for the pur- 
poses*of the establishment. 

After receiving this permit, no pains were spared to 
catch as many salmon as possible ; but the good runs were 
over, and we captured but twenty-eight fish between this 
time and the spawning -season, which began in one pond 
the 15th of October. We took on this and the two fol- 
lowing days 226,500 eggs from twenty-eight fish. On the 
2oth of October we found, to our surprise, that the fish we 
caught that day in the river had already spawned. The 
writer immediately took a gang of men and a forty-fathom 
sweep-seine, and swept the river thoroughly for nine miles 
above our nets, though the floating ice had begun to run. 
Many sahnon were caught, but all had spawned except two, 
one of which had been injured by a spear. The sahnon in 
the pond continued to hold their spawn till late in Novem- 
ber, though most of them had been found ripe, and had 
been stripped by the third day of that month. We took 
in all 443.900 eggs from forty-eight salmon. This num- 
ber, reduced by removal of dead eggs and accidents to 



APPENDIX VI. 301 

356,000, was equally divided, by special permit from the 
minister, when the eye-spots appeared, and one half were 
brought to the Cold Spring Trout Ponds at Charlestown, 
N. H., and the other half left to hatch for the benefit of 
the Mirimichi River. 

On the writer's return to New England, a very pleasant 
day was passed with the inspector of the Provinces at St. 
John, during which he renewed his assurances of his cor- 
dial support, and was even kind enough to offer capital for 
investment in our enterprise. This, however, was de- 
cHned on the ground that the assistance was not needed, 
as everything was paid for ; but the writer has regretted 
ever since that the offer was not accepted. The next time 
the inspector was heard from was on the occasion of his 
pubHshing a letter in a St. John paper, speaking in very 
detracting terms of Mr. Goodfellovv and the writer. The 
ostensible cause was some very inoffensive remarks made 
by the writer at a meeting of the Fisheries Commissioners 
at New York. The real cause may perhaps be found to 
be the rejection of the inspector's offers of investment, and 
the opposition of Mr. Goodfellow to the government party 
at a recent important election. But whatever the cause, 
from that time the salmon-breeding establishment on the 
Mirimichi and its owners met only persecution from the 
inspector, who, in language more becoming a rowdy than 
a government officer, wrote most abusive letters to and 
about the owners of the establishment. He made a threat, 
in words more forcible than elegant, that the salmon works 
at Mirimichi should "rot where they stood," and he has 
since resolutely and persistently acted up to it. 

The consequence is that a large* and well-appointed 
salmon-breeding establishment in perfect running order, 
located in one of the most favorable situations on the 
globe, is left to stand idle and useless, when it might be 

* Probably the largest in the world. 



302 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

adding to the world's wealth at the rate of millions of 
salmon a year. The short-sighted inspector, sacrificing 
the vast public good that could come from it to his private 
animosity, like the dog in the manger, will neither do any- 
thing himself, nor let any one else do anything with it. 
The good it might do and the credit it might reflect on 
his administration are sacrificed to carry out his childish 
threat ; and there the estabhshment still remains, closed 
and useless, a monument of the inspector's malevolence 
and imbecility. 

I am happy to say that the United States Congress has 
this year (1872) made an appropriation for salmon-breeding 
on the Pacific coast, and that in future salmon eggs will 
probably be obtained within the limits of the United States 
on even a larger scale than they could be procured on the 
Mirimichi. 



APPENDIX VII. 

EXPERIMENTS WITH TROUT EGGS AND TROUT. 

I WOULD by all means have a set of hatching boxes 
devoted to experiments. By careful and systematic 
experiment more knowledge and experience are gathered 
than in any other way, and it is upon this that sound 
progress in fish culture or any other art depends. 

The experiment boxes need not be large. Boxes vary- 
ing in capacity from loo to i,ooo eggs each are about the 
right thing. They can be separate boxes or subdivisions 
of the regular hatching troughs separated by screens ; but 
whatever they are they should be perfectly isolated from 
each other, for where this precaution has been neglected 
it is a very common and provoking source of disappoint- 
ment to have the eggs of different experiments wash in 
together and become indistinguishable. This is just as 
fatal, of course, to all useful results, as if the eggs had 
been destroyed. 

The separate subdivisions should be distinctly desig- 
nated, and full notes of the experiment carefully taken 
down in a note-book. In brief, the experiment, to be 
valuable, should be exact, systematic, and full in recorded 
detail, and the experiment boxes should be prepared to 
this end. 

Below will be found some of the experiments in trout 
culture which most readily suggest themselves. 



304 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Impregnating Eggs. 
Dry Method* 

1. Take ripe eggs with little milt and note the percent- 
age of impregnation. 

2. Take ripe eggs with abundant milt and note as before. 

3. Try immature eggs with good and sufficient milt. 

4. Try ripe eggs with poor milt. 

5. After mixing milt and eggs, add water at 36°, at 45°, 
at 60°, and compare results. 

6. Use milt that has been taken in a dry phial and corked 
up 24 hours, 48 hours, 96 hours, and compare results. 

7. Use milt that has been bottled up and sent by mail 
loo^miles, 500 miles, 1,000 miles. 

8. Use milt that has been forced f by putting male in 
warm water, and note the degree of impregnation. 

9. Use milt that has been frozen. 

10-12. Repeat experiments 6, 7, 9, using eggs instead 
of milt. 

13. Put ripe eggs with milt that has been exposed to 
the air 5 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. 

14. Put good milt with eggs that have been exposed to 
the air 5 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. 

15. Use ripe eggs with milt that has been diluted with 
water 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 20 minutes. 

16. Use good milt with eggs that have been kept in 
water 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. 

17. Compare the percentage of impregnation of eggs 
taken in Ainsworth's races and Collins's roller box with 
those taken by manual pressure. 

Experiments in general with Eggs. 

18. Pack eggs in wet moss {Sphagnum) as soon as taken, 
and examine when nearly ready to hatch, an^ note the 
mortality. 

* See p. 92. t See p. 103, note. 



APPENDIX VII. 305 

19. Pack eggs in moss at the first appearance of the eye- 
spots, examine and note as before. 

20. Place eggs, as soon as taken, on ice, keep on ice, 
and see how long they will be hatching. 

21. Freeze eggs solid, in water, at different stages of 
development, and note the result. 

22. Freeze as before in the air. 

23. Place a few eggs on a copper-wire screen, arid 
note the discoloration and absorption of copper. 

24. Allow a few eggs, after the eye-spots appear, to re- 
main considerably covered with sediment, and note the 
deformity of the embryo when hatched. 

25. Subject eggs of different ages to high temperatures 
of water, and note what degree of heat they will live 
through. 

Experiments with A levins and Young Fry. 

26. See how long five alevins will live in a gill of water 
at 36°, at 42°, at 50°, at 60°, at 70°. 

27. Freeze alevins soHd, thaw out, and return to the 
water in hatching box, and watch for a month. Mem. : 
Take care, during the freezing, not to disturb the fish, as it 
will tear itself against the forming ice, and die from the ef- 
fect of the laceration. The best way to freeze eggs or 
young fish is to take a dry glass tumbler which has been 
exposed to a great degree of cold, and pour into it the 
specimens to be experimented with, together with about a 
spoonful of water. The water, with the specimens, will 
immediately freeze solid. 

28. Expose alevins to a rising temperature, and note 
what degree of heat they will survive. 

Experiine?its with Young Fry. 

29-31. Repeat with trout fry the experiments with 
alevins marked 26, 27, and 28. 

T 



306 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

32. Keep very young trout fry in pure filtered spring 
water, and note how long they remain healthy without the 
addition of earth. 

33. After the fish in the last experiment begin to sicken, 
apply earth plentifully, and note the improvement. 

34. Keep 100 young fry in a small box, and 100 in a 
pond, for sixdnonths ; compare the mortality and growth. 

35. Feed two similar lots of young fry, one wholly on 
curd, the other wholly on liver, and compare results. 

36. Feed young trout fry plentifully on the young of 
other fish, as suckers, perch, and shiners, and note the 
result. 

y]. Take young trout fry that are attacked by animal 
parasites, and give them a salt bath, as described on 
page 258, and note the result. 

38. Observe the effect of the parasites on young fry not 
subjected to the salt bath. 

Experimeiits with Large Trout. 

39. Count the number of respirations of large trout at a 
temperature of 36°, 45°, 70°, and 80°, and compare the 
results. 

40. Freeze large trout carefully, but stop the freezing 
before the body becomes stiff. Thaw out gradually, and 
note the result. 

41. Let a large trout become motionless from sufToca- 
tion in still water, then try the effect of vigorous aeration 
of the water in restoring him. 

42. Ring a bell and make loud noises near trout where 
you can see them and they cannot see you, and note 
whether they appear to hear the sounds. 

43. Feed one lot of trout wholly on minnows for three 
months, and a similar lot on worms, a third lot on meat, 
a fourth lot on all three, and compare results. 

44. Subject a fish attacked by fungus to the salt bath 
described on page 258, and note the result. 



APPENDIX VII. 307 

45. Cross the various species of the Sahno family with 
each other, and note and publish the results. 

46. Whoever has the opportunity, and sufficient pa- 
tience, will render a great service to the fish-cultivating 
world by fully testing the experiment of breeding in and 
in with peculiar varieties of trout, as the Chinese do with 
gold fish, and publishing the results. 



APPENDIX VIII. 

THE PROGRESS OF DEVELOPMENT OF A SALMO 
{COREGONUS FAL^A, Cuv.j EGG.* 

"\ T 7E shall try to give here a short summary of the state 
^ ^ of the embryo at all periods of its life, indicating at 
which period the organs begin to form, and under what 
form they first appear. 

At the time of spawning, the ^gg is composed of the 
yolk, of little drops of oil spread over the surface of the 
yolk, and forming a kind of disk ; of the germinal vesicle 
and spots, situated in the middle of this disk ; and, lastly, 
of the yolk and shell membranes which envelop the tgg, 
without any intermediate space between them. Four hours 
after the spawning the shell membrane is detached from 
the yolk membrane, in consequence of the endosmotic 
penetration of the water through the pores of the first ; it 
becomes inflated, and the yolk floats freely in its cavity. 
Twelve hours after the spawning the germ begins to rise 
from the middle of the oily disk under the form of a little 
circular swelling. Sixteen hours after spawning the germ 
is seen in the form of a clear, transparent vessel above the 
oleaginous disk. The cells of which it is composed are 
little delicate transparent vessels, without any traces of a 
nucleus. Twenty hours after spawning the germ occupies 
all the extent of the disk, and the furrowing begins. A 
large shallow furrow is first perceived, which extends in a 
circular direction, and affects nothing but the germ. Dur- 

* Translated from the French of Vogt's Embryologie des Sal- 
mones, Chap. XIV,, by F. W. Webber. 



APPENDIX VIII. 309 

ing the second and third days the furrows develop. There 
exists ordinarily, as soon as the beginning of the second 
day, two furrows in the form of a cross. At the end of 
the second day the mulberry form has reached its devel- 
opment. On the third day it is insensibly effaced, and the 
germ becomes smooth ; but it is, however, opaque, ow- 
ing to the cells accumulated in its interior. On the fourth 
day the embryonic germ represents a hemisphere of granu- 
lated appearance, but smooth on the exterior, reposing on 
the oily disk. All the cells are perfectly developed, and 
all have nuclei. Those of the outer stratum are even pro- 
vided with nucleated cells. From the sixth to the ninth 
day the epidermoidal stratum detaches itself insensibly 
from the other embryonic cells, overruns the yolk, and the 
embryo separates more and more from the yolk vessel. 
At the beginning of this period the germ represents a 
large sunken mass, which hardly passes the borders of 
the oily disk. Finally, there is only a little space in the 
yolk free, the yolk cavity ; all the rest is filled up with 
the epidermoidal layer. The embryo is diametrically op- 
posite to the yolk vesicle, and it is in correspondence with 
its length that the cells are the most heaped up in the 
place where the primitive bands form. On the tenth day 
the dorsal furrow appears and takes the form of a large 
and tolerably deep fissure, but ending indistinctly in front. 
The cephalic extremity of the embryo is large, square, 
and truncated. The caudal extremitv is lost in a vao:ue 
way in the keel surrounding the yolk cavity, which grows 
continually narrower. The dorsal part of the embryo is 
more narrow than the two extremities. It is, besides, 
curled in a uniform manner around the yolk, and the dor- 
sal furrow is wide open ; the germ and the yolk vesicle are 
diametricall)' opposite. On the eleventh and twelfth day 
the dorsal furrow ends in front, and shows the first traces 
of the enlargements which correspond to the three cere- 



3IO DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

bral divisions. The space corresponding to the mesen- 
cephalon is the largest, and in profile it is easily discerned 
^by its enlargement, which begins near the ocular lobes. 
The dorsal furrow is closed in tube form on the back. 
The vertebral divisions begin to show, but almost exclu- 
sively upon the front turned against the 5^olk. The part 
of the dorsal furrow which is still open is very narrow. 
The cells of the epidermoidal stratum have lost their nu- 
cleoli and represent a tessellated epethelium. At the place 
where the dorsal cord shows, cells are to be seen, filled 
with an opaque and granulated alimentary substance. 
From the thirteenth to the sixteenth day the three cere- 
bral divisions are characterized in the most distinct man- 
ner. The ocular lobes of the mesencephalon become more 
and more distinct and completely enclosed on the side of 
the mesencephalon as in a vault. The dorsal cord ap- 
pears under the form of a simple string, solid and trans- 
parent, in the middle of the embryo. The vertebral divis- 
ions are perfectly distinct. The caudal extremity of the 
embryo is circumscribed on the side of the yolk. » The 
yolk is surrounded on all sides by the epidermoidal stratum. 
The yolk cavity has disappeared. Towards the end of 
the sixteenth day the beginning of the crystalline coating 
can be remarked in the eye. The rudiment of the ear ap- 
pears at the same time under the form of an elliptical 
vesicle, with a clearer space in the centre ; it is situated 
a little in front of the nuchal bow. This, as well as the 
cephalic bow and the curvature of the trunk, is well marked 
out. The yolk vesicle, on the contrary, is very much re- 
duced. The epencephalon shows a few swellings analo- 
gous to the ^'' ganglions persistans des Trigles.^'' 

From the seventeenth to the twentieth day the tail be- 
gins to show itself, and the embryo uses it to give vigor- 
ous shakes by striking with it laterally. The cephalic bow 
becomes level. The crystalline coating develops and har- 



APPENDIX VIII. 311 

dens. The choroid cleft is just formed. The prosenceph- 
alon, with its prolongation towards the extremity of the 
snout ; the mesencephalon, which is hollowed completely 
into the form of a cavity ; and the epencephalon, with the 
cerebellum, which are beginning to form, — are now very 
easily distinguished. In front of the extremity of the cord, 
which is still homogeneous, is accumulated at the base of 
the brain the thick blastema of the basis of the cranium. 
Then under the dorsal cord, between it and the yolk, forms 
a thick layer of cells larger than the properly called em- 
bryonic cells, and provided with opaque nuclei, the layer 
of intestinal cells representing the mucous leaflet. This 
layer is divided into two rows, the lower one designed to 
form the intestine, the upper designed for the corpus 
Wolfianiwi. The intestine begins to be transformed into 
a tube behind and in front, in proportion as the embryo 
disengages itself more and more from the yolk. An 
enlargement (a /(i'i'/^/'/^r «//<2«/<?zly) shows itself at the ex- 
tremity of the secretory canal of the corpus Wolf.a7ium. 
The heart forms in a swelling of the embryonic mass on 
the side of the yolk, in the middle of the space between 
the ear and the eye. At first solid, and composed of 
simple embryonic cells, it is soon transformed into a cav- 
ity, in which globules of blood can be seen to rise and 
fall in cadence, conforming to the repeated contractions 
of this organ. The heart is at a right angle with the axis 
of the body, and reposes vertically upon the yolk, the 
middle of which it occupies. Behind the heart can be re- 
marked a little angular protuberance, the first vestige of 
the pectoral fin. The blood-producing layer is seen to 
appear upon the yolk in the neighborhood of the heart, 
giving to the yolk a spotted appearance. The first traces 
of the black pigment show in the choroid ; the cells of 
brown pigment are created at the same time in the vicinity 
of the eye. The vertebral divisions are very distinct. 



312 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

The tail grows larger. The first traces of the odd fin are 
formed by the epidermoidal layer upon the circumference 
of the embryo ; the yolk vesicle disappears. 

From the twenty-third to the twenty-seventh day the 
first rudiments of the nasal cavities are seen to appear on 
the lower front of the head. The prolongation of the pro- 
sencephalon, forming the olfactory nerve, stretches so as 
to reach the nasal cavities. The head rises, disengages 
itself from the yolk in consequence of the strengthening 
of the nuchal bow. The yolk begins to separate from the 
head, and the separation of the belly follows at the same 
time that an uneven ventral fin shows, formed from the 
epidermoidal layer. The choroid surrounds nearly all the 
bulb of the eye ; the coloboma of the iris appears under 
the form of a light cleft. The thick blastema of the base 
of the cranium is very distinct. In the dorsal cord the 
little cells develop in the form of little isolated vesicles, 
which increase and occupy all the cord in front and be- 
hind. The blood-producing layer extends over the yolk. 
The choroid can be recognized by the naked eye in con- 
sequence of the accumulation of pigment, and the eyes 
can be distinguished through the shell membrane under 
the form of two black points. The intestine and the 
urethra are transformed into complete tubes, not showing 
any trace of cellular structure. The anus is still closed. 

From the twenty-seventh to the thirtieth day the pineal 
gland appears in the form of a little globulous accumula- 
tion of cells in the semicircular cavity situated behind 
the prosencephalon. The interior formations of the me- 
sencephalon begin to show. The thick blastema of the 
base of the cranium contracts very distinctly in the neigh- 
borhood of the hypophysis. The ear is much nearer to 
the eye than formerly. The first traces of circulation ap- 
pear in the beginning, under the form of two similar cur- 
rents, one of which is destined for the head and the other 



APPENDIX VIII. 313 

for the body. These currents come out from the heart by 
the aorta and the carotid arteries, and return to the heart 
by the anterior and posterior yolk veins. The two ante- 
rior yolk veins disappear first, and after them the left pos- 
terior vein. The hematogenous layer has completely 
overrun the yolk, and there exist no capillary ramifications 
except upon the latter. The pectoral fin, which at first 
was pendent, rises, and keeps up a continual motion. The 
formation of cells is complete in the dorsal cord, and the 
intercellular substance has almost entirely disappeared. 
The liver begins to form, its communication with the in- 
testine is very distinct, and capillary networks form in 
its interior towards the end of this period. The posterior 
yolk vein stretches along the lower front of the intestine, 
and bends back in the neighborhood of the hver. The 
odd fin which surrounds the body grows larger. The first 
traces of the otohths appear in the ears. The different 
divisions of the heart are visible externally, and the rudi- 
ments of the opercle become more and more distinct 

From the thirty-first to the fortieth day the nose begins 
to show very distinct outlines. The buccal cavity forms, 
and on both sides can be seen the first rudiments of the 
upper jaw, under the form of two prolongations. The 
choroidal fissure closes, and the development of black pig- 
ment in the eyes prevents any further study of them. The 
branchial fissures appear one after the other, and each 
of the branchial arches receives a vascular arch. At the 
end of this period there are five arches, the first of which 
is the hyoidal arch. The semicircular grooves begin to 
form in the ears. The cells of the muscles are arranged 
in threads. The cells of black pigment in the epidermoidal 
layer of the back are seen to appear. The whole circula- 
tion undergoes important modifications while penetrating 
into the tail, where it gives birth to a cardinal vein. The 
circulation of the head becomes symmetrical, the right 
14 



314 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

carotid being more active than the left, and the left jugu- 
lar more active than the right. The aortic arch at the 
right is also more powerful. Intestinal arteries form. The 
liver develops more and more to the detriment of the yolk 
circulation. The little drops of oil unite in one great drop. 
The buccal intestine enters into communication with the 
branchial cavity. 

From the forty-first to the sixtieth day the embryo be- 
comes ready to hatch. The nose draws insensibly near 
the extremity of the head. The cartilaginous bases of 
the head form from the thick blastema of the base of the 
cranium. In the eye the cornea and the sclerotic separate 
from the tissues of the choroid. The ear approaches the 
eye. The interior parts of the eye completely develop. 
The heart takes a horizontal position in consequence of 
the proximity of the yolk and the body, — a proximity 
which itself depends upon the disappearance of the peri- 
cardial sac and the abdominal sac of the epidermoidal 
membrane. The yolk disappears from sight. Peristaltic 
motions and very decided movements of mastication can 
be perceived in the intestine. The mouth, situated be- 
tween the eyes, is transversal. The embryonic odd fin 
shows cavities in the places where it is designed to be 
absorbed. The yolk circulation disappears, that of the 
liver or the circulation of the portal system is entirely 
estabhshed. The sixth branchial arch, or the pharyngian 
arch, receives a vascular arch. The hyoidian arch has 
disappeared. The head contracts as the formation of the 
cartilages progresses. The vertebrae become cartilaginous. 
The muscular fibres take transverse strise. 

Immediately after the spawning the essential modifica- 
tions are as follows : The yolk is little by little completely 
absorbed. The oil drop lasts the longest, but it also finally 
disappears. The yolk circulation passes entirely to the 
liver, and there completes the circulation of the portal 



APPENDIX VIII. 315 

system. The opercular parts develop backwards, the 
lower jaw forwards, without, however, reaching the ex- 
tremity of the snout. The lower extremity of the dorsal 
cord rises. The odd fins take their shape definitely and 
receive their rays. The pectoral fins are very large in 
proportion. The fringes of the capillary arteries begin to 
develop upon the branchial arches. The metallic pigment 
of the choroid appears. The swimming bladder unfolds. 
The cartilaginous skeleton begins to turn to bone, and the 
rudiments of the teeth appear in the mouth. 



APPENDIX IX. 

PERCH HATCHING. 

T THINK that the most wholesome food for very 
-*- young trout fry will be found to be the still smaller 
and younger fry of spring-spawning fish, and I venture to 
predict that the time will come when this natural food will 
be generally used when practicable. The Yellow Perch 
{Perca flavescens), which spawns in April, is an admirable 
fish for the purpose, as it is very abundant, and its eggs 
are numerous, easily obtained, and very easy to impreg- 
nate and hatch. With this end in view, the following notes 
are given in regard to hatching perch eggs. 

It is the easiest and simplest thing in the world to 
manipulate perch and take their eggs artificially, and hatch 
them. I have taken miUions in that way, and have hatched 
hundreds of thousands of them. Indeed, after my first 
experience, during the year 1868, I found it vastly easier, 
and had better luck, than with the salmon family. 

It is not only very easy to take perch eggs by hand, 
but you can generally impregnate the whole of them, or 
very nearly the whole of them. If any one would like to 
see how easy it is, let him take a good-sized milk-pan, 
nearly full of water, and having found a ripe pair of golden 
perch, — this is easy enough, I have found hundreds just 
ripe, — let him impregnate the water well with the milt of 
the male, and proceed as follows with the female : — 

Hold the fish just over the edge of the pan, so as to let 
the exterior end of the roe rest, as it comes out, on the 
further edge of the pan. It will stick in a moment. Then 



APPENDIX IX. 317 

draw the fish slowly over the pan to the opposite edge, 
letting the roe fall in the water, and fasten the other end 
of it, as before, to that edge of the pan. You will then 
have the roe suspended in the water in such a way that it 
cannot get together and stick, and suffocate itself, as it 
surely would if it had a chance. Shake the pan a little. 
In an hour rinse the eggs, change the water twice a day, 
and in twenty days, if the water is not too cold, your eggs 
will hatch. 60 degrees Fahrenheit is a very good tem- 
perature to hatch them in, but they will stand a tempera- 
ture as high as 85 degrees, at which point their develop- 
ment is very rapid. At 95 degrees they die. If you put 
a couple of large stones in the pan, to rest the ends of 
the roe on, it is better than to stick them to the edge of 
the pan. 

The development of the perch embryo is exceedingly 
interesting. A very singular feature of it is the movement 
of the embryo in the egg, which begins almost as soon as 
the form of the fish is visible. The little creature jumps 
from one wall of the egg to the other, with a quick spas- 
modic movement, like that observed in the animalculae in 
a drop of water under a very high magnifying power. 
This motion is as regular, when the eggs are not dis- 
turbed, as the ticking of a watch, and never ceases, day 
or night, except when the eggs are shaken, when, by an 
instinctive consent, every fish stops as if by magic. In a 
second or two the movement begins again. 

The viscous matter which envelops the eggs and holds 
them together is finally wholly absorbed, and the eggs fall 
apart. They now consist of merely a frail shell, contain- 
ing the embryo. This shell easily breaks, and the young 
perch is set free. He is very small, not more than half as 
large as a black bass just hatched, or one fourth as large 
as a whitefish an hour old. 

The roe of the yellow perch comes in folds from the 



3l8 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

fish, in the form of a long, narrow, adhesive ribbon, with 
the appearance of having been packed very compactly. 
In a few moments it swells to such a size that you could 
not get more than one third of it into the fish again. 

After the expansion is completed, an average roe of a 
six-ounce Missisquoi River perch will measure about 36 
inches in length by about 3 inches in width, or 108 super- 
ficial inches. I estimate that there are about 64 eggs to 
the square inch, which would give 6,912 eggs to the roe. 
I do not claim any exactness in this estimate, but I think 
it approximates the truth. 

There is one more feature about the spawn in question 
which should be noted. After a little while it loses its 
tendency to stick to foreign substances, although it still 
adheres together, and it can be taken up in the hand and 
carried about, and even handled quite roughly, without 
damaging the eggs. 



APPENDIX X. 

ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN FISH CULTURISTS' 
ASSOCIATION. 

New York City, December 20, 1870. 

A MEETING of practical fish culturists was held in 
this city to-day, in compliance with a call, issued 
November i, by W. Clift, A. S. Collins, J. H. Slack, F. 
Mather, and L. Stone. 

The place of meeting was subsequently changed to 
the rooms of the New York Poultry Society, to which so- 
ciety the delegates are much indebted, both for the use of 
the rooms and for various other courtesies extended to 
them during the day. 

The delegates having assembled, a temporary organiza- 
tion was formed, with Rev. W. Chft as chairman and Mr. 
L. Stone as secretary. It was then unanimously resolved 
to form a permanent organization of fish culturists, and 
Dr. Edmonds and Mr. Stone were appointed a committee 
to draft a constitution for such an organization, to report 
when ready. On the presentation of their report, the fol- 
lowing constitution was adopted, namely : — 

CONSTITUTION. 
Article I. 
Name and Objects. — The name of this Society shall be "The 
American Fish Culturists' Association." Its objects shall be to 
promote the cause of fish culture ; to gather and diffuse infor- 
mation bearing upon its practical success ; the interchange of 
friendly feeling and intercourse among the members of the asso- 
ciation ; the uniting and encouraging of the individual interests 
of fish culturists. 



320 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Article II. 
Members. — All fish culturists shall, upon a two- thirds vote of 
the society and a payment of three dollars, be considered mem- 
bers of the association, after signing the constitution. The com- 
missioners of the various States shall be honorary members of 
the association, ex officio. 

Article III. 
Officers. — The officers of the association shall be a president, 
a secretary, and a treasurer, and shall be elected annually by a 
majority vote. Vacancies occuring during the year may be filled 
by the president. 

Article IV. 
Meetings. — The regular meetings of the association shall be 
held once a year, the time and place being decided upon at the 
previous meeting. 

Article V. 

Changing the Constitution. — The constitution of the society 
may be amended, altered, or repealed by a two-thirds vote of the 
members present at any regular meeting. 

The constitution having been adopted, the following 
officers were chosen for the ensuing year : W. Gift, Mystic 
Bridge, Conn., President ; L. Stone, Charlestown, N. H., 
Secretary; B. F. Bowles, Springfield, Mass., Treasurer. 

It was then resolved that an effort be made to secure an 
exhibition of live fish at the next meeting, and that the 
following gentlemen be requested to prepare papers, to be 
read at the next meeting, on the subjects annexed to their 
names : — 

A. S. Collins, on " Spawning Races and the Impregna- 
tion of Eggs." 

J. H. Slack, 

W. Clift, on " The Culture of Shad." 
Dr. Edmonds, on ''The Introduction of Salmon into 
American Rivers." 

B. F. Bowles, on " Land-locked Salmon." 



APPENDIX X. 321 

Dr. Huntington, on " Fish in the North Woods of New 
York. 

L. Stone, on " The Culture o£ Trout." 

It was decided to hold the next meeting and exhibition 
in connection with the New York Poultry Show next year. 
It was voted to send a report of the meeting for publica- 
tion to the New York Citizen and Round Table, the New 
York Tribune, the Springfield Republican, the New York 
Poultry Bulletin, and other papers at discretion ; and the 
secretary was instructed to mail the published reports of 
the meeting to fish culturists generally. 

LIVINGSTON STONE, 

Secy Fish Cult. Ass'n. 



H' 



APPENDIX XI. 
SPECIMENS OF SALMONID^ FOR PROF. AGASSIZ. 

Cold Spring Trout Ponds, 
Charlestown, N. H., January 24, 1877. 

To Fishermen and Sportsmen. 

GENTLEMEN : Professor Agassiz is preparing an 
illustrated work of the American Salmonidae, includ- 
ing all the trout and salmon, as well as whitefish, of this 
country. To enable him to make this work complete, he 
requires live specimens of every variety of trout, salmon, 
and whitefish found on this continent. The American 
Fish Culturists' Association are endeavoring to help him 
in this great undertaking, and would beg you to send to 
Professor Agassiz,* for his investigation, any specimens 
of these varieties that may come within your reach, — 
alive, if possible ; if not, dead, — and especially to forward 
to him any new or rare specimens that you may discover. 
Samples of the' winninish, land-locked salmon, and the 
rarer kinds of the lake trout and sea trout, are particu- 
larly requested. Further appeal for your co-operation 
seems unnecessary, as you cannot but feel that no Amer- 
ican can do too much for Professor Agassiz. All speci- 
mens should be directed to Professor Agassiz, Museum 

* If the specimens cannot be kept alive, and are small, put 
them just as they are into a bottle of alcohol and water, and 
send them. If the specimens are large, treat them thoroughly 
with a wash of carbolic acid, and express them at once to the 
Museum, or skin them, without severing the head or tail, and 
send the skin, head, and tail in the same way, or in alcohol. 



APPENDIX XI. 323 

of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., and should be 
labelled with the name in full of the exact locality from 
which they are taken. 

Yours very truly, 

LIVINGSTON STONE, 

Secy A. F. C. A. 



The following letter is added, at Professor Agassiz's 

suggestion : — 

Cambridge, January 20, 1871. 

Dear Sir : I am greatly obliged to you for your kind 
offices in helping me to secure the necessary materials for 
a proper investigation of our salmon, etc. 

A single specimen of any fish of this family, even the 
common brook trout, from, any locality, with label attached, 
mentioning the name of the place, "would be very accept- 
able, as indicating the range of distribution. Of the rarer 
varieties, several specimens are desirable. Besides the 
specimens that may be thus brought forward, I would hke 
an opportunity to critically study the specific characters 
of all the different species of the family found upon this 
continent. To this eflfect I should have a large number 
of speci?nens of each species, in every stage of growth, 
collected m the sa7ne locality^ so that there could be no 
doubt of its being the same kind offish, and yet a chance 
be afforded of studying all the variations of age, sex, sea- 
son, etc. For the salmon, for instance, it would be neces- 
sary to have very young ones, others two, three, four, five 
inches, etc., to full-grown ones,/?^;;/ one place, where the 
trtie salmon alone is found ; then the same for the land- 
locked salmon ; then the same again for the Sebago sal- 
mon. This would settle the question whether we have 
one, two, or three species of salmon. Next, I would 
wish for the same opportunity of studying, in every stage 
of growth, the lake trout, the brook trout, the grayling, 



324 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

and the different kinds of whitefish. Single specimens 
sent from different localities — and the more such are 
sent the better — will settle the question of the distribu- 
tion of each species ; but you see that it will never do to 
attempt identifying the species from specimens gathered 
at random in different localities ; that study must be made 
from specimens collected in the same region, indepen- 
dently of the study of the distribution of species. And 
now that you know my plans, I leave the matter in your 
hands. 

Very truly yours, 

L. AGASSIZ. 

Livingston Stonb, Esq. 



APPENDIX XII. 

MARKING SALMON. — (BuCKLAND.) 

T NOW give the different ways of marking. 

J- I. Cut off the dead or adipose fin altogether with 
sharp surgical scissors. This test, however, is liable to 
mislead. Everybody cuts off this fin, so that future diag- 
nosis is difficult. I do not know what use the salmon 
makes of the adipose fin. It seems to have been put 
on his back by nature for the convenience of us pisci- 
culturists, on purpose to be cut off, or otherwise experi- 
mented on. 

2. Slit the adipose fin right down the middle again with 
sharp scissors. Rub the cut edges well with stick nitrate 
of silver ; these edges will never again unite as long as the 
fish lives, unless the salmon has a submarine hospital, 
and a piscine doctor to bring the edges together, and keep 
them there in a scientific manner. 

3. Cut a V-shaped bit out of the front of the adipose 
fin on its anterior margin. 

4. Cut a V-shaped bit out of the posterior margin. 

5. Cut a V from the top of the adipose fin, from above 
downwards. 

6. Get some little metal clips, such as are used to keep 
loose papers together, make a hole with a pen-knife be- 
tween the rays of the edge of one of the fins, not the tail 
or pectoral fins, run in the letter clip, expand the two 
arms, and Mr. Fish is marked. Do not put the clip too 
tight, or it might slough out. A bull never sheds the iron 
ring in his nose, but recollect the ring is loose, not tight. 



326 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

There might be a danger that these ch'ps would not stand 
sea water ; they might easily be galvanized over, or cov- 
ered with a waterproof varnish. 

7. Wipe the fish's face quite dry. Light a Vesuvian 
match (not a flamer), and burn the skin of his cheek ; 
burn marks never come out in men and animals, why 
should they not also be permanent in fish ? The Vesu- 
vian marks can be varied, — one on the right cheek for 
1870, two on the left cheek for 1871, and so on. 

8. Get a saddler's punch, such as is used for making 
holes in stirrup leathers. Punch a hole in his gill-cover ; 
the hole will only let a little more water into his gills, on 
the principle that they slit the nostrils of the mules that 
carry copper ore up the Andes, — it lets more air into their 
lungs. 

9. Get a sharp clip, such as is used by the " tickets, 
please," man at the railway station. Clip bits out of the 
edges of the fish's gills, or out of his anal fin. This fin is 
the least serviceable fin to the fish, therefore utilize it ; 
but interfere with his tail fin, that is, his screw propeller, 
as little as possible. 

10. Get a set of doctor's cupping instruments, cup the 
fish on his side ; six beautiful slits are made in a moment. 
Rub in gunpowder, and the fish is tattooed. 

11. Fasten silver wire loose around the first ray of the 
back fin, or round the hindermost ray of the anal fin. 
The wire must not be too loose, or it might catch in weeds, 
etc. I am afraid tickets, unless very small, with numbers, 
might interfere with the fish's movements. 

Whatever you do, take care not to touch or injure the 
fish's gills. If the fish is obstreperous, do not fight with 
him ; let him dance about a bit on the grass. A silk 
pocket-handkerchief is the best thing to hold a slippery 
fish ; a flannel blanket is also a useful thing. 

Do not return the fish rudely into the water; if he is 



APPENDIX XII. 327 

faint, go in with him, and support his head against the 
stream till he swims away of himself If there are many- 
fish, keep them till wanted in the water in a large hoop, 
or, as I call it, a " crinoline " net. This net can easily be 
made with two common hoops, as used by boys, and a 
bit of spare netting. 

I am afraid Mr. Colam and the Cruelty to Animals So- 
ciety may be down on me for my suggestions on marking 
fish ; but I really do not think the cold-blooded, scale- 
wearing fish can possibly have an acute sensation of pain. 
Besides which, even suppose it was cruel to mark fish, 
the operations are done in the cause of science, and for the 
advancement of general 'knowledge of the habits of the 
salmon. 

October 20, 1870. 



APPENDIX XIII. 

ARE THE FISH IN THE SEA DIMINISHING? 

Extract from Bertram's Harvest of the Sea, Chap. XI. 

THE idea of a slowly but surely diminishing supply of 
fish is no doubt alarming, for the public have hitherto 
believed so devoutly in the frequently quoted proverb of 
" more fish in the sea than ever came out of it," that it has 
never, except by a discerning few, been thought possible 
to overfish ; and, consequently, while endeavoring to sup- 
ply the constantly increasing demand, it has never suffi- 
ciently been brought home to the public mind that it is 
possible to reduce the breeding stock of our best kinds of 
sea fish to such an extent as may render it difficult to re- 
populate those exhausted ocean colonies which in years 
gone by yielded, as we have been often told, such miracu- 
lous draughts. It is worthy of being noticed that most 
of our public writers who venture to treat the subject of 
the fisheries. proceed at once to argue that the supply of 
fish is unlimited, and that the sea is a gigantic fish-pre- 
serve into which man requires but to dip his net to obtain 
at all times an enormous amount of wholesome and nutri- 
tious food. 

I would be glad to believe in these general statements 
regarding our food fisheries, were I not convinced, from 
personal inquiry, that they are a mere coinage of the brain. 

There are doubtless plenty of fish still in the sea, but 
the trouble of capturing them increases daily, and the in- 
struments of capture have to be yearly augmented, indi- 
cating but too clearly to all who have studied the subject 



APPENDIX XIII. 329 

that we are beginning to overfish. We already know, in 
the case of the salmon, that the greed of man, when 
thoroughly excited, can extirpate, for mere immediate gain, 
any animal, however prolific it may be. Some of the 
British game birds have so narrowly escaped destruction 
that their existence, in anything like quantity, when set 
against the armies of sportsmen who seek their annihila- 
tion, is wonderful. 

Tlie salmon has just had a very narrow escape from ex- 
termination. It was at one time a comparatively plentiful 
fish, that could be obtained for food purposes at an almost 
nominal expense, and a period dating eighty years back is 
thought to have been a golden age so far as the salmon 
fisheries were concerned. But, in my opinion, it is more 
than questionable if salmon, or indeed any of our sea or 
river animals, ever were so magically abundant as has 
JDeen represented. At the time — a rather indefinite time, 
however, ranging from the beginning to the end of the 
last century, and frequently referred to by writers on the 
salmon question — when farm servants were compelled to 
eat of that fish more frequently than seemed good for 
their stomachs, or when the country laird, visiting London, 
ordered a steak for himself with "a bit o' saumon for the 
laddie," and was thunderstruck at the price of the fish, 
we must bear in mind, as a strong element of the ques- 
tion, that there were few distant markets available ; it was 
only on the Tweed, Tay, Severn, and other salmon streams, 
that the salmon was really plentiful. 

No such regular commerce as that now prevailing was 
carried on in fresh salmon at the period indicated. In 
fact, properly speaking, there was no commerce beyond 
an occasional despatch to London per smack, or the sale 
of a few^sh in country market-towns, and salmon has 
been known to be sold in these places at so low a rate as 
a penny or twopence a pound weight. Most of these 



330 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

fish, at the time I have indicated, were boiled in pickle, or 
split up and cured as kippers. In those days there were 
neither steamboats nor railways to hurry away the produce 
of the sea or river to London or Liverpool. It is not sur- 
prising, therefore, that in those good old times salmon 
could almost be had for the capturing. Poaching — that 
is, poaching as a trade — was unknown. As I have al- 
ready stated, when the people resident on a river were 
allowed to capture as many fish as they pleased, or when 
they could purchase all they required at a nominal price, 
there was no necessity for them to capture the salmon 
while it was on the beds in order to breed. Farm-servants 
on the Tay or Tweed had usually a few poached fish, in 
the shape of a barrel of pickled salmon, for winter use. 
At that time, as I have already said in treating of the sal- 
mon, men went out on a winter night to "burn the water," 
but then it was simply by way of having a froHc. In 
those halcyon days country gentlemen killed their salmon 
in the same sense as they killed their own mutton, namely, 
for household eating ; there was no other demand for the 
fish than that of their own servants or retainers. Farmers 
kept their smoked or pickled salmon for winter use, in the 
same way as they did pickled pork or smoked bacon. 
The fish, comparatively speaking, were allowed to fulfil 
the instincts of their nature and breed in peace ; those 
owners, too, of either upper or lower waters, who delighted 
in angling, had abundance of attractive sport; and, so far 
as can be gleaned from personal inquiry or reading, there 
was during the golden age of the salmon a rude plenty 
of home-prepared food of the fish kind, which, even with 
the best-regulated fisheries, we can never again, in these 
times of increasing population, steam power, and aug- 
mented demand, hope to see. 

At present the very opposite of all this prevails. Far- 
mers or cottars cannot now make salmon a portion of their 



APPENDIX XIII. 331 

winter's store. Permission to angle for that fish is a favor 
not very easily procured, because even the worst upper 
waters can be let each season at a good figure ; and more 
than all that, the fish has become individually so valuable 
as to tempt persons, by way of business, to engage ex- 
tensively in its capture at times when it is unlawful to take 
it, and the animal is totally unfit for food. A prime sal- 
mon is, on the average, quite as valuable as a Southdown 
sheep or an obese pig, both of which cost money to rear 
and fatten ; and at certain periods of the year salmon has 
been known to bring as much as ten shillings per pound- 
weight in a London fish-shop. There have been many 
causes at work to bring about this falling off in our sup- 
phes ; but ignorance of the natural history of the fish, the 
want of accord between the upper and lower proprietors 
of salmon rivers, the use of stake and bag nets, poaching 
during close times, and the consequent capture of thou- 
sands of gravid fish, as well as the immense amount of 
overfishing by the lessees of fishing stations, are doubtless 
among the chief reasons. 

If these misfortunes occur with an important and indi- 
vidually valuable fish like the salmon, which is so well 
hedged round by protective laws, and which is so accessi- 
ble that we can watch it day by day in our rivers, — and 
that such misfortunes have occurred is quite patent to the 
world ; indeed, some of the best streams of England, at one 
time noted for their salmon, are at this moment nearly des- 
titute of fish, — how much more is it likely, then, that 
similar misfortunes may occur to the unwatched and un- 
protected fishes of the sea, which spawn in a greater world 
of water, with thousands of chances against their seed 
being even so much as fructified, let alone any hope of its 
ever being developed into fish fit for table purposes. In 
the sea the larger fish are constantly preying on the 
smaller, and the waste of life, as I have elsewhere ex- 



332 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

plained, is enormous. The young fish, so soon as they 
emerge from their fragile shell, are devoured in countless 
millions, not one in a thousand, perhaps, escaping the dan- 
gers of its youth. Shoals of haddocks, for instance, find 
their way to the deposits of herring-spawn just as the 
eggs are bursting into life, or immediately after they have 
vivified, so that hundreds of thousands of these infantile 
fry and quickening ova are annually devoured. The hun- 
gry codfish are eternally devouring the young of other 
kinds, and their own young as well ; and all throughout the 
depths of ocean the strong fishes are found to be preying 
on the weak, and a perpetual war is being waged for daily 
food. Reliable information, it is true, cannot easily be 
obtained on these points, it being so difiicult to observe 
the habits of animals in the depths of the ocean ; and none 
of our naturalists can inform us how long it is before our 
whitefish arrive at maturity, and at what age a codfish or 
a turbot becomes reproductive ; nor can our economists 
do more than guess the percentage of eggs that ripen into 
fish, or the number of these that are likely to reach our 
tables as food. 

As has been mentioned in a previous chapter of this 
volume, the supply of haddocks and other Gadidce was 
once so plentiful around the British coasts that a short line, 
with perhaps a score of hooks frequently replenished with 
bait, would be quite sufficient to capture a few thousand 
fish. The number of hooks was gradually extended, till 
now they are counted by the thousands, the fishermen 
having to multiply the means of capture as the fish be- 
come less plentiful. About forty years ago the percentage 
of fish to each line was very considerable: eight hundred 
hooks would take about seven hundred and fifty fish ; but 
now, with a line studded with four thousand hooks, the 
fishermen sometimes do not take one hundred fish. It 
was recently stated by a correspondent of the John d' Grqat 



APPENDIX xiir. 333 

Journal, a newspaper published in the fishing town of 
Wick, that a fish-curer there contracted some years ago 
with the boats for haddock at 3^" dd. per hundred, and 
that at that low price the fishing yielded the men from 
;^ 20 to ^ 40 each season ; but that now, although he has 
offered the fishermen 12 j-. a hundred, he cannot procure 
anything like an adequate supply. 

As the British sea fisheries afford remunerative employ- 
ment to a large body of the population, and offer a favorable 
investment for capital, it is surely time that we should know 
authoritatively whether or not there be truth in the falling 
off" in our supplies of herring and other whitefish. At one 
of the Glasgow fish merchants' annual soirees, held a year 
or two ago, it was distinctly stated that all kinds of fish 
were less abundant now than in former years, and that in 
proportion to the means of capture the result was less. 
Mr. Methuen reiterated such opinions again and again. 
" I reckon our fisheries^^" said this enterprising fish mer- 
chant, on one occasion, " if fostered and properly fished, a 
national source of wealth of more importance and value 
than the gold mines of Austraha, because the gold mines 
are exhaustible, but the living, propagating, self-cultivating 
gift of God is inexhaustible, if rightly fished by man, to 
whom they are given for food. It is evident anything 
God gives is ripe and fit for food. ' Have dominion,' not 
destruction, was the command. Any farmer cutting his 
ripe clover grass would not only be reckoned mad, but 
would in fact be so, were he to tear up the roots along 
with the clover, under the idea that he was thus obtaining 
more food for his cattle, and then wondering why he had 
no second crop to cut. His cattle would starve, himself 
and family be beggared, and turned out of their farm as 
improvident and destructive, who not only beggared them- 
selves, but to the extent of their power impoverished the 
people by destroying the resources of their country. The 



334 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

farmer who thus destroys the hopes of a rising crop by 
injudicious farming is not only his own enemy, but the 
enemy of his country as well." Such evidence could be 
multiplied to any extent, if it were necessary ; but I feel 
that quite enough has been said to prove the point. It is 
a point I have no doubt upon whatever, and persons who 
have studied the question are alarmed, and say it is no 
use blinking the matter any longer, that the demand for 
fish as an article of food is not only beginning to exceed 
the supply, but that the supply obtained, combined with 
waste of spawn and other causes, is beginning to exceed 
the breeding power of the fish. In the olden time, when 
people only caught to supply individual wants, fish were 
plentiful, in the sense that no scarcity was ever expe- 
rienced, and the shoals of sea fish, it was thought at one 
time, would never diminish ; but since the traffic became 
a commercial speculation the question has assumed a to- 
tally different aspect, and a sufficient quantity cannot now 
be obtained. Who ever hears now of monster turbot be- 
ing taken by the trawlers ? Where are the miraculous 
hauls of mackerel that used to gladden the eyes of the 
fishermen ? Where are now the wagon-loads of herring 
to use as manure, as in the golden age of the fisheries ? 
I do not require to pause for the reply ; echo would only 
mock my question by repeating it. Exhausted shoals and 
inferior fish tell us but too plainly that there is reason for 
alarm, and that we have in all probability broken at last 
upon our capital stock. 

It seems perfectly clear that we have hitherto seriously 
exaggerated the stock; it could never have been of the 
extent indicated, because then no draughts could have had 
any great effect, no matter how enormous they might have 
been. From various natural causes, some of which I 
have indicated in a former chapter, the stock has been 
kept in balance, and it seems now perfectly clear that by 



APPENDIX XIII. 335 

a course of fishing so extensive as that carried on at 
present, coupled vvitli the destruction incidental to unpro- 
tected breeding, we must at all events speedily narrow, if 
not exhaust, the capital stock. We have done so in the 
case of the salmon ; and the best remedy for that evil 
which has yet been discovered is cultivation, — piscicul- 
ture^ in fact, — which science, or rather art, I have already 
treated of on its own merits. In ancient days the land 
yielded sufficient roots and fruits for the wants of its then 
population without cultivation ; but as population in- 
creased, and larger supplies became necessary, cultiva- 
tion was tried, and now in all countries the culture of the 
land is one of the main employments of the people. The 
sea, too, must be cultivated, and the river also, if we de- 
sire to multiply or replenish our stock of fish. 



APPENDIX-XIV. 

BOOKS ON FISH CULTURE. 

List of Published Works relating in whole or 
IN PART TO Fish Culture. 

"OnniANOY 'AAIEYTIKQN, i3i/3Xta vrei/re. I2mo. Floren- 
tias. CDXV. 

Booke of Fishing with Hook and Line, and all other In- 
struments thereunto belonging; with Remarks on the 
Preservation of Fish in Ponds. Leonard Mascall. 4to. 
London. 1590. 

Certaine Experiments concerning Fish and Fruite. John 
Taverner. 4to. 1600. Very rare. 

The Perfect Husbandman. C. H. B. C. and C. M. 4to. 
London. 1658. Pages 346-355 of Fish Ponds and Fish. 

The Angler's Vade Mecum, together with a Brief Dis- 
course on Fish Ponds. Thomas Barrett. 8vo. London. 
1681. 

Country Gentleman's Vade Mecum. Giles Jacob. Lon- 
don. 1717. Pages 25-31 on Fish, AngHng, and Fish Ponds. 

Discourse of Fish and Fishing. Roger North. 8vo. 
London. 171 8. Large 4to. London. 1770. 

An Account of the Fishpool. Sir Richard Steele. 8vo. 
London. 1718. 

History of the Chinese Empire. Vol. I. John Baptiste 
Duhalde. 1735. 

Memoirs of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. 
Vol. XXIII. German Ed. 1761. 

Philosophical Trans. Royal Society of London. Vol. 
LVII. 1768. 



APPENDIX XIV. 337 

Icthyologie, ou histoire naturelle generale et particu- 
liere des poissons, traduit de Tallemande par Laveaux. 
Marc. Eliez. Bloch. r2 vols. Berlin. 1785-97. 

Berisch Anweisung zur Zahmen und Wilden Fischerei. 
Leipzig. 1794. 

A Plain and Easy Introduction to the Knowledge and 
Practice of Gardening, with Hints on Fish and Fish 
Ponds. Charles Marshall. i2mo. London. 1796. 

Natural History of British Fishes. O. Donovan. 5 vols. 
London. 1802-08. 

History of Fishes. Vol. L Noel de la Morimiere. 1815. 

Histoire naturelle des poissons. Cuvier et Valen- 
ciennes. 8vo. Paris. 1828. 

Salmonia ; or, Days of Fly Fishing. Sir Humphry 
Davy. 8vo. London. 1828. 

History of British Fishes. William Yarrell. 2 vols. 
London. 1835-36. 

Histoire naturelle des poissons d'eau douce de I'Europe 
centrale. Agassiz. 2 vols. 1839. 

Experimental Observations on the Development and 
Growth of Salmon Fry, etc. John Shaw. Edinburgh. 1840. 

Political Economy of the Romans. Vol. IL Dureau 
de la Malle. 1840. 

Journal of the Agricultural Union of the Grand Duchy 
of Hesse. No. 37. 1840. 

Memoirs of the Central Society of Agriculture. Vol. 
XLVIH. 1840. 

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Vol. 
XIV. 1840. 

Embryology of the Salmon, Natural History of Fresh 
Water Fish. L. Agassiz. 1842. 

Zoology ; or. New York Fauna. Part IV. Fishes. 
James E. De Kay. 4to. 1842. 

A Treatise on the Management of Fresh Water Fish. 
Gottlieb Boecius. London. 1841. 

15 V 



338 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

The Complete Angler, with a Bibliographic Preface, giv- 
ing an Account of Fishing and Fishing-Books from the 
earliest Antiquity to the Time of Walton. Walton and 
Cotton. i2mo. New York and London. 1847. Wiley 
and Putnam's edition. 

Natural History of the Salmon. Wick. 1848. 

Comptes Rendus of the Academy of Sciences. Vols. 
XXVII., XXVIIL, XXXIIL, XXXVL, XXXVIII. 1848! 

Revue des Deux Mondes. January i, 1849. 

Annals of the Natural Sciences. Third Series. Vol. 
XIV. 1850. Vol. XIX. 1853. 

The Norman Annual. 1850-54. 

Artificial Fecundation of Fish. Society of Emulation 
of the Doubs. 1851. 

The Book of the Salmon, by Ephemera, assisted by 
Arthur Young. 1851. 

The Agronomic Annals. Vol. I. 1851. 

Bulletin of the Agricultural Society of Paris. Vols. VI., 
VII., VIII. 1851-53. 

Report upon the Facts proved at Huningue, from May 6, 
1851, to May 7, 1852. Messrs. Detzern and Berthol. 

Bulletin of the Society of Agriculture of L'Herault. 
July, 1852. 

Journal of Practical Agriculture. June 5, 1852. 

Practical Instructions upon Pisciculture. M. Coste. 

1853- 

Haxo d'Espinal on the Artificial Fecundating and Hatch- 
ing of the Eggs of Fish. Second Edition. 1853. 

Memoirs of the Society of Agriculture of Lyons. May, 

1853. 

Report to the Director-General of Waters and Forests, 
upon the Repopulating of the navigable and floating Water- 
courses. M. de Saint Ouen, Administrator of the Forests. 
March, 1853. 

Annals of the Forests. July and August, 1853. 



APPENDIX XIV. 339 

Handliedung tol de Kumtmatige Veremenigouldigen var 
Vischen. 1853. 

Analytic Sketch of the Labors of the Academy of 
Rouen. 1853. 

Researches into the Natural History of the Salmon. 

1853- 

Propagation of Salmon and other Fish. Edward and 
Thomas Ash worth. Stockport. 1853. 

Researches on the Composition of Eggs in the Series 
of Animals. Valenciennes and Frdmy. 1854. 

Guide du Pisciculture. J. Remy. Paris. 1854. 

Natural History and Habits of the Salmon, etc. An- 
drew Young. 1854. 

Pisciculture pratiqjue et sur I'eleve et la multiplication 
des sangsues. Ouenard. Paris. 1855. 

Pisciculture, Pisciculteurs, et Poissons. Eugene Voel. 
Paris. 1856. 

Pisciculture et la production des sangsues. Augusta 
Jourdier. Paris. 1856. 

Sea-Side and Aquarium. John Harper. Edinburgh. 
1858. 

Fish Culture : a Treatise on the Artificial Propaga- 
tion of Fish. Theodatus Garlick, M. D. New York. 
1858. 

The Family Aquarium. H. D. Butler. New York. 
1858. 

Notice historique sur I'etablissement de pisciculture de 
Huningue. Berger Levrault. Strasbourg. 1862. 

Natural History of the Salmon, as ascertained at Stor- 
montfield. William Brown. Glasgow. 1862. 

Fish Hatching. Frank T. Buckland. 1863. 

Guide pratique du pisciculture. Pierre Carbonnier. 
Paris. 1864. 

Propagation of Oysters. M. Coste and Dr. Kemmerer. 
Brighton. 1S64. 



340 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

Fish Culture : a Practical Guide to the Modern System 
of breeding and rearing Fish. Francis Francis. Lon- 
don. 1865. 

Artificial Fish Breeding. W. A. Fry. New York. 1866. 

Harvest of the Sea. James G. Bertram. New York. 
1866. A most excellent and valuable book. 

The Stormontfield Piscicultural Experiments. Robert 
Buist. Edinburgh. iS66. 

Harper's Magazine. November, 1868. 

Practical Water Farming. William Beard, M. D. Edin- 
burgh. 1868. 

American Fish Culture. Thaddeus Norris. Philadel- 
phia. 1868. 

Directions for Raising Trout. Livingston Stone. Bos- 
ton. 1868. 

Fishing in American Waters. Genio C. Scott. New 
York. 1869. 

Trout Culture. Seth Green. Caledonia, New York. 
1870. 

Pisciculture dans I'Amerique du nord. J. Leon Sou- 
berain. Bulletin de la Societe d'AccHmatation. January 
and February, 1871. 

Selection of Species in relation to Sex. Charles Dar- 
win 2 vols. London and New York. 1871. 

Domesticated Trout: How to Breed and Grow them. 
Livingston Stone, A. M. Boston. 1872. 



List of Books with Dates not given. 

Artificial Spawning, Breeding, and Rearing of Fish. 
Gottheb Boccius. Van Voorst. Paternoster Row. 
De Piscibus et aquatihbus omnibus. Conrad Gesner. 
De Re Rustica. Book VOL Columella. 
Easy Method of Catching Fish. William Arderon. 



APPENDIX XIV. 341 

Fur, Fin, and Feather. A Compilation of Game Laws. 
New York. M. B. Bowen & Co. 

Husbandman's Jewell, with the Art of Angling, includ- 
ing Fish and Fish Ponds. 

Importanza economica dei pisci e del coro allevamento 
artificiale. Signor F. Defillippi. 

Instructions pratiques sur la Pisciculture, suivies de 
mdmoires et de rapports sur la meme sujet. M. Coste. 
Paris. 

Multiplication artificelle des poissons. J. P. J. Koltz. 
Paris. 

Pisciculture et culture des eaux. P. Trigneaux. Paris. 

Pisciculture pratique, considerations generales et pra- 
tiques sur le repeuplement des eaux de la France. M. 
G. Millet. Bordeaux. 

Pisciculture pratique, rapport sur les mesures h prendre 
pour assurer le repeuplement des cours d'eau de la 
France. M. G. Millet. Paris. 

Pisciculture, rapport sur le repeuplement des cours 
d'eau et sur les travaux de pisciculture de M. Millet. 
Paris. Auguste Goin, Editeur. 

Pisciculture : considerations generales et pratiques sur 
la pisciculture marine. M. G. Millet. Paris. 

Pisciculture : observations sur la communication ver- 
bale de M. Coste. M. Millet. Paris. 

Report on the Species of Fish in Prussia which might 
be imported and acclimated in the fresh waters of France. 
M. Valenciennes. 

Reports of Fisheries Commissioners of Maine, New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 
necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other 
States. Annuals. 

Supplementary Report on the Rivers of Spain and Por- 
tugal. Manchester. 

The Oyster : where, when, and how to find, breed, cook, 
and eat it. 



342 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 

The Salmon and its Artificial Propagation. Robert 
Ramsbottom, Clitheroe. London. 

Translation of the Proceedings of the French Piscicul- 
turists. WilHam H. Fry. Appleton : New York. 

Voyage d'exploration sur le littoral de la France et de 
ritalie. M. Coste. Paris. 



INDEX 



Agassiz, Professor, drawings of eggs 
of the Coregonus palsa as seen under 
a powerful magnifier, 131, 132 ; re- 
quests specimens of Salmonidae, 
322-325. 

AiNswoRTH, spawning race, 29-31 ; 
Collins's modification of, 32-36; 
period of hatching, table, 129. 

Alevins, duration of period, 140 ; ef- 
fect of cold on, 146 ; experiments 
with, 305 ; first appearance of, 139 ; 
glass lining in troughs an injury to, 
143 ; habits of, 140- 146 ; instinct to 
hide, 143; meaning of word " ale- 
vin," 139; monstrosities among, 147; 
perversity in, 145 ; quantity of wa- 
ter necessary to, 146 : tendency to 
follow current of water, 144 ; trans- 
portation of, 196. 

American Fish Culturists' Asso- 
ciation, organization of, 319-322. 

Ani.mal Parasites, description of, 
on young fry, 186; on large trout. 
Appendix I. 

Apparatus for hatching, 47. 

Aqueducts, charred, 48; covered, 49 ; 
hatching room, 48 ; security of, 48. 

Atkins, table of spawn in different 
fish, 268 ; table of impregnated sal- 
mon eggs at Maine State Salmon- 
Breeding Establishment, 92. 

Authorities, list of, 336-342. 

Bertram, extract from Harvest of 
the Sea, 228- 335. 

Breeders, effect of health on proge- 
ny, 165. 

Buck LAND, Frank, directions for 
marking salmon, 325 - 327 ; table of 
spawn in different fish, 267. 

Buildings, number of, 40, 41 ; car- 
penter's shop, 43 ; hatching house, 
44 ; ice house, 43 ; meat room, 41, 
42 ; office, 43 ; store-room, 43. 



Byssus, cause of, 119: effect of, 120; 
peculiarities of, 120. 

Canadian Correspondence, letters 
from Mr. Whitcher, 297-299. 

Cannibalism, danger of, 189 ; reme- 
dy for, 187. 

Cleanliness inculcated and neces- 
sary, I, App. 

Cold Spring Trout Ponds, brief 
sketch of, 287 - 295 ; table of spawn 
taken in one month, 269, 270 ; table 
of spawning time, 269- 

Commissary Department, care and 
preparation of meat, 214 ; cheap- 
ness of food, 210 ; fish flesh used as 
food, 213 ; keeping meat, 215 ; kind 
of food, 211 - 214 ; minnows as food, 

212 ; nutritious food, 212 ; plate of 
meat-cutter, 215 ; sour-milk curd, 

213 ; worms and insects used as food, 
213 ; variety in food, 212. 

CosTE, arrangement of glass grilles, 
64-67; table of period of spawn- 
ing of European fish which repro- 
duce in fresh water, 271. 

Covers, material for, 63 ; necessity 
for, 62. 

Diseases of young fry, 178-193; list 

of, 177 ; large trout, 191. 
Distributing Spout, description of, 

S3 ; office of, 53 ; preparation of, 53. 

Eggs, appearance of impregnated and 
unimpregnated, 125, 126 ; cause of 
death among, 121 - 129 ; color of, 
106 ; daily examination while hatch- 
ing, 120; development at hatching 
time, 129, 130; different fish pro- 
duced by, 130 ; effect of light on, 
42, 43; enemies to hatching, 118, 
119; hatching, 112-135; how to 
tell what eggs will produce good 



344 



INDEX. 



fish, 130 ; how to tell dead, 122 ; 
how to tell percentage of impreg- 
nated, 125-128; impregnation of, 
87-100; method of packing, 136- 
139 ; number to a fish, 107 ; plates 
of, as seen under a magnifier, by 
Professor Agassiz, 131, 132 ; size of, 
105 ; structure of, 106. 

Embryos, darkness necessary to de- 
velop, 63 ; development of, 129 ; 
how to make produce healthy fish, 
167 ; sickly, 166 ; to insure strong 
and healthy, 167 ; of perch, 317 ; 
of salmon, 308-316; of trout, 68, 
129, 167. 

Experiments, general account of, 
303 - 308 ; with alevins and young 
fry, 305, 306 ; in impregnating eggs, 
304 ; _ large trout, 306, 307 ; trout 
eggs and trout, 303 - 308. 

Eyes, form of, in trout, 202. 

Filtering Tanks, covers to, 53 ; de- 
scription of, 51 ; filters for, 52 ; ne- 
cessity for, 50 ; place of, 52 ; plate 
of, 51 ; a remedy for sediment, 50; 
size of, 52. 

Filters, a necessity to cleanliness at 
hatching time, 121 ; make of, and 
material for, 121. 

Fish, ancient fish story, 283 ; freezing, 
280, 281 ; handle carefully, 222 ; list 
of spawning time, 267, 268 ; most 
valuable kinds found in Missisquoi 
River, 274 ; value of those found in 
Mirimichi River, 273. 

Fly- Fishing, accoimt of, 283. 

Freshets, loss occasioned by, 8 ; 
need of precaution against, 12 ; 
guards against, 39. 

Fungus, account of, 114, 115 ; descrip- 
tion of parasites found in, 260 ; ef- 
fect of, on eggs, 115 ; how to detect 
the presence of, 115 ; microscopic 
examination of, 257 ; plate of par- 
asites found in, 257 ; prevention 
against, 115, 116; salt a cure for, 
258-260 ; why to dread, 114. 

Glass Grilles, cost of, 56 ; compared 
with charred troughs, 66, 288 ; 
Coste's arrangement, 64-67. 

Gravel, classification of, 62 ; depth 
of, in troughs, 61 ; laying in troughs, 
60-62; obtaining, 60 ; preparation 
of, 61 ; quantity to be used, 61 ; 
size of, 60 ; washing of, 61. 

Green, Seth, method of watching 
progress of embryo, 129 ; a report 
of shad spawning on the Hudson 



River, 269 ; rule for time of hatch- 
ing, 128. 

Hatching Apparatus, aqueduct, 

48 ; distributing spout, 53 ; filtering 
arrangement, 50 ; supply reservoir, 
47 ; troughs, 54. 

Hatching the Eggs, Ainsworth's 
table, 129; dangers to, 113; daily 
examination while, 121 ; examining 
the progress, 124; hatching early, 
131 ; iiiterest felt in, 129, 130 ; labor 
in picking over the eggs while hatch- 
ing, 123 ; plates of microscopic 
changes in eggs while hatching, 131; 
protection against danger to, 113; 
skill in, 112, 113 ; time required for, 
128. 

Hatching House, aqueduct in, 48, 

49 ; kind of, 44 ; lighting of, 45 ; lo- 
cation of, 45 ; necessity of security 
in, 118- 121 ; shape of, 46 ; size of, 
^5 ; troughs in, 55-64; use of gravel 
in, 60 ; where to look upon entering, 
120 ; warmth of, 45. 

Hatching Troughs, advantages of 
charred wood over other material, 
56 ; construction of, 58, 59 ; covers 
to, 62-64 ; comparative expense of 
material, 56 ; c'escription of M. 
Coste's, 64-67; glass grilles used 
in, 56, 57; glass used in another 
form, 66 ; make of, 63, 64 ; mate- 
rials for, 55 ; placing the, 57 ; prep- 
arations for use, 59 ; safeguards to, 
59, 60 ; shape and size, 57, 58 ; 
screens for, 59. 

Impregnation, amount of, 87- 100; 
absorbing power of eggs at time of, 
90-92 ; average yield by dry meth- 
od, 93 ; closing notes on, 105 - 107 ; 
discovery of dry or Russian method 
introduced into this country, 96 ; 
eggs exhibited at American Fish 
Culturists' Association at Albany, 
prepared by dry method, 94, 95 ; 
experiments by M. Vrasski, 88, 89 : 
experiments in, 304, 305 ; further di- 
rections for, 102 ; how to tell per- 
centage of, 124- 129 ; in water, 87; 
injury by water at time of, 88-92 ; 
interesting consequences of dry 
method, 97 - 99 : list or table of, by 
dry method, at Maine State Salmon- 
Breeding Establishment, 92 ; make 
quick work, 103 ; modus operandi, 
100; practical advantages of dry 
method, 99 ; Russian or dry method 
more particularly described, 92 - 96 ; 



INDEX. 



345 



Seth Green's success in, 93, 94 ; 
temperature of water suitable to, 
112. 
Inlets and Outlets, directions for, 
37 ; side channels to, 39 ; size of, 39. 

Jack, account of, 233. 
Journeys of the fish and eggs, 362 - 
267. 

Large Trout, account of those 
caught by G. S. Page, Esq., 20S ; 
age of, 207 ; best market for selling, 
240 ; liest time to kill for food, 236 ; 
daily care, 233 ; experiments in 

■ feeding, 306-308; food for, no; 
how to grow rapidly, 231 ; market- 
ing, 235 ; most profitable age of, 256 ; 
quantity of food, 232 ; rate of growth, 
232 ; range required, 232 ; size of, 
208 ; scientific description of, by 
Storer, 197 - 200 ; temperature of 
water, 232 ; weight, 207. 

Marking Fish, Buckland's directions 
for marking salmon, 325 - 327. 

Meat, place to keep, 42; preparation 
of, 41, 42. 

Meat Grinders, 214, 215. 

Milt, action of, at time of impregna- 
tion, 90 ; bad effect of water on, 95 ; 
composi ion of, 95 ; experiments 
with, 95, 304 ; length of time the 
spermatozoa will remain alive, 97. 

Mink, how to catch, 225, 226. 

Minnows, as food, 212; encourage- 
ment to cannibalism, 212, 213. 

MiRiiMiCHi River, kind offish found 
in, 272 ; quantities of fish found, 
272 ; salmon-breeding establishment 
on, 298, 305. 

MissisQuoi River, kind offish found 
at, 272. 

Northern New England, table of 
spawning time of migratory and 
fresh-water fish, 270. 

Nurseries, description of, 68. 



Odds and Ends, 267 - 342. 
Overheating, remedy for, li 



190. 



Page, G. S., amount of large trout 
caught, 208 ; introduction of Rus- 
sian method of impregnation, 88 - 
T96 ; letter from, 207. 

Patent Carbonized Hatching 
Troughs, cost of, compared with 
glass grilles, 288 ; description of, 
286 - 289. 

15* 



Perch Hatching, description of, 
316-319; description of roe, 317; 
development of embryo, 317. 

Poachers, 227-231. 

Ponds, advantage of plank over earth, 
226 ; avoid overstocking, 216 ; 
charred, 23 ; compactness of, 20 ; 
construction of, 19 ; depth of, 25 ; 
dravfing off, 223 ; hiding-places in, 
26 ; location of, 18, 219 ; material for 
building, 22 ; mullets in, 223 ; num- 
ber of, 25 ; repairs to, 26 : security 
in, 22 ; size, 20 ; shape, 21. 

Quatrefage's experiments with sper- 
matozoa and milt of different fish 
diluted with water, 91. 

Rearing Boxes, arrangement of, 77 ; 
absence of fixed hiding-places, 74 ; 
compactness of fish for feeding in, 
74 ; completeness in, 72 ; construc- 
tion of ponds used as, 78 ; current 
in, 72 ; form of, 72 ; fall of water in, 

72 ; number of points necessary to 
completeness in, 72 ; outside ene- 
mies, 74, 75 ; overflow in, 73 ; pro- 
tection against too forcible suction, 

73 ; points nedessary to, 72 - 76 ; 
protection against fungus, 76 ; size 
of, 77 ; supply of water in, 77 ; tight 
joints in, 75 ; water plants in, 78. 

Recapitulation of all principles, 
251-254. 

Reservoir, cleanliness in, 48 ; secur- 
ity in, 47 ; supply of water in, 47. 

Ripe Fish, appearance of, loi ; cau- 
tion about handling, 104 ; danger in 
rough handling, 86 ; dexterity in 
handling, 104 : how to tell, 100. 

Salmo Egg, translation from Vogt's 

work on the development of, by F. 

W. Webber, 308-316. 
Salmon-Breeding Establishment 

ON the Mirimichi River, account 

of, 295-302 ; letter from Mr. Whitch- 

er, 297 - 299. 
Salt a cure for fungus, 257- 261. 
Screens, materials for, 38 ; placing 

of, 58 ; slats used as, 38 ; uniformity 

in, 39- 
Security, the principle inculcated, 

6 ; necessity for, 7 ; losses caused 

by want of, 8 ; results of want of, 

9, 10. 
Sediment, danger of, 116; method of 

removing, 117. 
Shad, dissertation on, 283-285. 



346 



INDEX. 



Spawn, dangers to, 113-123; placing 
the, 110, III ; taking the, 92, 96. 

Spawning, age of trout ready for, 
105 ; apparatus for, 82, 83 ; appear- 
ance of fish when ready for, 83 ; be- 
havior of fish at time of, 88 ; careful 
handhng of fish at time of, 84 ; cap- 
turing the fish for, 83, 84 ; danger to 
fish at time of, 87 ; effects of weath- 
er on, 107, 108 ; handling the fish 
while, 85-87 ; length of time neces- 
sary to, 105; pans for, no; perch, 
317; process of, 85-87; prepara- 
tions for, 82 ; Russian method, 96 - 

■ 100 ; spawning in ponds, 109. 

Spawning Beds, Ainsworth's spawn- 
ing race, 28 ; construction of, 27, 28 ; 
list of articles necessary at, 275 ; 
slope and size of raceway, 27. 

Streams, avoid overstocking, 216 ; 
examination of, while hatching, 220, 
221 ; freshets in, 8, 12, 39 ; heating 
of, remedy for, 189, 190. 

Stoker, scientific description of Sal- 
mo fontinalis, 197 - 200. 

Suffocation, cause of, 190 ; remedy 
for, 190. 

Tables, Ainsworth's, periods of 
hatching, 129 ; Atkins's, of spawn 
in different fish, 268 ; including fish 
not mentioned in other, 268 ; Buck- 
land's, of spawn in different fish, 
267 ; of amount of spawn taken at 
Cold Spring Trout Ponds in one 
month, 269, 270 ; Coste's, of time of 
spawning of different fish which re- 
produce in fresh water, 271 ; Green's, 
showing number of shad spawn, 
269 ; of times when it is illegal to 
take trout in some of the States, 272 ; 
of time of spawning in Northern 
V New England, 270, 271 ; of number 
of salmon eggs taken at Mirimichi 
in 1 868, 268. 

Transportation and Packing of 
Eggs, directions to accompany 
transportation, 133, 134. 

Tricks with trout, 276 ; at spawning 
time, 276 ; with birds, 279 ; with 
eggs of, 278 ; with other fish, 278 ; 
with muskrats, 279 ; with poachers, 
280. 

Trout, age of, 207, 208 ; appetite 
in summer, 216 ; at different times 
of day, 217, at spawning time, 
216 ; in winter, 217 , brain of, 205 ; 
change of color in, 206 ; canni- 
balism of, 217; character of water 
needful to raising of, 21 ; digestion 



of, 15s, 205 ; destructiveness of, 
26 ; enemies to, 9 ; faultlessness 
of, 200 ; general remarks on, 200 - 
204 ; growth as affected by food, 
207 ; habits of, 204 ; handling care- 
fully, 222 ; hearing of, 203 ; how 
often to feed, 217; how to screen 
against loss, 218-224; markings 
of, 205 ; mischief from not sorting, 
225 ; natural food for, 205 ; nerves 
of smell in, 203 ; necessity of watch- 
fulness of, 6 ; protection against 
enemies to, 224 - 227 ; protection 
against cannibalism, 224, 225 ; pas- 
turing, 220 ; progress of disease, 
191 ; qualities necessary to raising, 
5; quantity of food to give, 218; 
security in raising, 8 ; sources of 
danger, 8, 9; sorting, 223-225; 
suited to domestication, 200 ; sensi- 
tiveness to motion, 201 ; sensitive- 
ness to color, 202 ; tameness of, 3, 
4 ; tricks with, 276 ; vision of, 201, 
202. 

Trout Breeding, commissary de- 
partment, 210 ; processes in, 81 ; 
qualifications for, 81 ; security neces- 
sary to, 6, 7. 

Trout-Breeding Establishment, 
cost and profits, 245 - 247 ; current 
expenses, 245; list of articles neces- 
sary for use, 275. 

Trout Culture, Ainsworth's table, 
247; cliances of income, 249-251; 
Cold Spring Trout Ponds, 250 ; es- 
timate of expenses and returns, 246 ; 
pecuniary aspect, 244 ; repetition of 
cautions, 133 ; sources of revenue, 
248 - 250.. 

U tensils necessary at trout-breeding 
establishment, 275. 

VoGT, M., translation from, by F. W. 
Webber, 308- 316. 

Vrasski, M., discoveries by, 96 ; ex- 
periments, 88, 89. 

Water, amount of, 11 ; brook water 
and spring water compared, 1 5 ; 
brook water advantas:es, 16 ; char- 
acter of, 19 ; desirability of fall in, 
21 ; guard against heating in, 16-21, 
217; in nursery, 68; in pond, 69; 
poisonous qualities in, 14 ; selection 
of, II ; temperature of, 13- 16 ; use 
of ice, 218 ; suitability of, 14, 15 ; 
vigor of, 14 

Water Plants in nursery and ponds, 
77, 78 ; list of, 274, 275. 



INDEX. 



347 



Young Fry, advantages of boxes in 
rearing, 71; care of "en route," 
195; care of, 156-176; counting, 
193 ; comparison between boxes and 
ponds in rearing, 69 - 80 ; causes of 
death, 171 ; danger of crowding, 
171 ; danger to, in ponds, 70 ; dan- 
ger in rearing boxes, 71 ; delicacy 
of, 149 ; digestion of, 155 ; descrip- 
tion of diseases of, 178- 193 ; earth 
a remedy for disease, 160- 165 ; ex- 
periments with, 305, 306 : fresh wa- 
ter essential to, 169 ; filling orders 
for, 192 - 196 ; first preparations for 
sending off, 192; growth of, 164; 
how to make live, 165 ; implements 



necessary in travelling, 194 ; kind 
of food to be used, 151 ; method of 
rearing, 69 ; method of feeding, 152- 
154; protection against sickness and 
death, 175; provide suitable place 
to feed, 167 ; points to be secured in 
places where kept, i68 ; preparation 
of food, 151 ; quantity of water ne- 
cessary while travelling, 195 ; size 
of tanks or cans for carrying, 194 ; 
shade necessary to, 169; size of place 
to keep, 171 ; sunlight injurious to, 
169; take good care of, 172-175; 
temperature of water while travel- 
ling, 195 ; time of beginning to feed, 
151 ; use of ice, 195. 



THE END. 



Cambridge : Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. 



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